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Fiber art refers to fine art whose material consists of natural or synthetic fiber and other components, such as fabric or yarn. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labor on the part of the artist as part of the works' significance, and prioritizes aesthetic value over utility.
The Revolutionary Knitting Circle (RKC) is an international activist group that engages in craftivism, focusing on knitting and textile handicrafts to promote social change. Established in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, by Grant Neufeld in 2000. The group uses knitting to contrast with the ideas that protests are violent and the ways in which police handle the protests. The movement has expanded, with groups forming in various regions of the United States and Europe.
Craftivism is a form of activism, typically incorporating elements of anti-capitalism, environmentalism, solidarity, or third-wave feminism, that is centered on practices of craft - or what has traditionally been referred to as "domestic arts". Craftivism includes, but is not limited to, various forms of needlework including yarn-bombing or cross-stitch. Craftivism is a social process of collective empowerment, action, expression and negotiation. In craftivism, engaging in the social and critical discourse around the work is central to its production and dissemination. Practitioners are known as craftivists. The word 'craftivism' is a portmanteau of the words craft and activism.
Elisabeth Dee DeVos is an American politician, philanthropist, and former government official who served as the 11th United States secretary of education from 2017 to 2021. DeVos is known for her conservative political activism, and particularly her support for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools. She was Republican national committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, and again from 2003 to 2005. She has advocated for the Detroit charter school system and she is a former member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She has served as chair of the board of the Alliance for School Choice and the Acton Institute and headed the All Children Matter PAC.
Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk. It is also called wool bombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting, or graffiti knitting.
Golden Asro Frinks was an American civil rights activist and a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) field secretary who represented the New Bern, North Carolina SCLC chapter. He is best known as a principal civil rights organizer in North Carolina during the 1960s.
Carrie Reichardt is a British artist known for her provocative protest art and collaborative large-scale pieces around systemic injustice and social activism.
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate building in a community, petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.
The Craftivist Collective is "an inclusive group of people committed to using thoughtful, beautiful crafted works to help themselves and encourage others be the positive change they wish to see in the world." It was set up in 2009 by Sarah Corbett. It is based in London.
Sarah Corbett is an English activist, author, speaker, and the founder of Craftivist Collective. Corbett is known for developing the 'gentle protest' approach to activism, and coining the term 'gentle protest'.
Cat Mazza is an American textile artist. Her practice combines tactical media, activism, craft-based art making and animation in a form that has frequently been described as craftivism. She is the founder of the craftivist collective microRevolt. Mazza is an associate professor of art at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Barb Hunt is a multidisciplinary textile artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her art has contrasted knitting as a warming, protective art, against the violence of war. Through her tactile work, Hunt explores domesticity, mourning rituals, the natural world, and the colour pink.
Coral Short is a queer Canadian multimedia artist and curator. Based in Berlin and Montreal, they are best known for their performance art, as a curator of short film programs, and as a creator of affordable queer artist residencies.
L.J. Roberts is an American textile artist. Roberts, who is genderqueer and uses singular they pronouns, explores queer and feminist politics in their work.
A pussyhat is a pink, crafted brimless hat or cap, created in large numbers by women involved with the United States 2017 Women's March. They are the result of the Pussyhat Project, a nationwide effort initiated by Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman, a screenwriter and architect located in Los Angeles, to create pink hats to be worn at the march.
Kate Just is an American-born Australian feminist artist. Just is best known for her inventive and political use of knitting, both in sculptural and pictorial form. In addition to her solo practice, Just often works socially and collaboratively within communities to create large scale, public art projects that tackle significant social issues including sexual harassment and violence against women.
The Tempestry Project is a collaborative fiber arts project that presents global warming data in visual form through knitted or crocheted artwork. The project is part of a larger "data art" movement and the developing field of climate change art, which seeks to exploit the human tendency to value personal experience over data by creating accessible experiential representations of the data.
Carole Frances Lung is an American artist and labor activist, known for her performance art which centers around subjects such as textile consumption, unfair labor practices, and production systems. Lung is an associate professor of Fashion Fiber and Materials at California State University, Los Angeles. Her work concerns labor in the fashion industry and often comprises long-duration projects of performance art and collaborative art activism. She is based in Long Beach, California.
Shannon Downey is an American crafter and activist. Downey is recognized as a leader in the field of craftivism, using cross-stitching as an activism tool. Downey serves as director of development at Asian American Advancing Justice and is an adjunct professor at DePaul University and Columbia College.
Gentle protest is an approach to activism which aims to change hearts, minds, policies and laws through thoughtful and compassionate actions. Its intent is to invite reflection and respectful conversation rather than division. It is purposefully non-aggressive in nature.
