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6/17/2018 Makers, Crafters, Educators: Working for Cultural Change (Hardback) - Routledge

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Makers, Crafters, Educators

Working for Cultural Change
Edited by Elizabeth Garber (/products/search?author=Elizabeth Garber), Lisa Hochtritt
(/products/search?author=Lisa Hochtritt), Manisha Sharma (/products/search?author=Manisha
Sharma)

© (Copyright) 2019 – Routledge

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Description
Makers, Crafters, Educators brings the do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos of maker and crafter
movements into educational environments, and examines the politics of cultural change that
undergird them. Addressing making and crafting in relation to community and schooling
practices, culture, and place, this edited collection positions making as an agent of change in
education. In the volume’s five sections—Play and Hacking, Access and Equity,
Interdependence and Interdisciplinarity, Cultural and Environmental Sustainability, and Labor
and Leisure—authors from around the world present a collage of issues and practices
connecting object making, participatory culture, and socio-cultural transformation. Offering
gateways into cultural practices from six continents, this volume explores the participatory
culture of maker and crafter spaces in education and reveals how community sites hold the
promise of such socio-cultural transformation.

Table of Contents
Foreword, Garth
Johnson

1. Introduction: Makers, Crafters, Educators: Working for Cultural Change, Elizabeth

Garber,
Lisa
Hochtritt,
and
Manisha
Sharma

Section
One:
Play
and
Hacking

2. The Joy of Tinkering, Anne

Thwaits

3. The Sewing Rebellion, Lisa

Vinebaum

4. Tinkering with Change: A Makerspace at a University Art Museum, Chelsea

Farrar

5. Material Inquiry: Digital Materials, People, and the Relationships Between Them, Marta
Cabral
and
Sean
Justice

6. Pedagogy of the Hack: El Rancho Electrónico and the Culture of Surveillance, León
de
la
Rosa-Carrillo
in
conversation
with
Estrella
Soria,
Gato
Viejo,
Hacklib,
and
Jorge
David
García
(AKA
Sísifo
Pedroza)

7. Makerspaces in a University Art and Design Context: Resourcing the Adult Imagination, Alexandra
Byrne,
Jim
Ward,
and
Kim
Snepvangers

8. DIY in Art Education and Art Teacher Training in Turkey, Vedat

Özsoy

https://www.routledge.com/Makers-Crafters-Educators-Working-for-Cultural-Change/Garber-Hochtritt-Sharma/p/book/9781138896192 1/4
6/17/2018 Makers, Crafters, Educators: Working for Cultural Change (Hardback) - Routledge
9. Maker Ed: Shifting Vision, Culture, and Systems, Stephanie
Chang

10. Empty Bowls, Full Minds: Connecting Classroom Learning to Empirical Experiences, Jill
Menaugh

11. Jugaad in Innovative Making and Crafting in India: Examining the Work of Sanjeev Shankar, Asavari
Thatte

12. What Spinning Teaches Me, Daniel

T.
Barney

Section
Two:
Access
and
Equity

13. Do-It-Yourself Movement: A Perspective from a Brazilian Craft Context, Leda

Guimarães

14. Does Outreach Equal Equity? Thoughts on the Impact and Challenges of Off-site Community Programs
and the Struggle to Use the Arts in Achieving Social Justice, Sarah
B.
McCann

15. Contradiction and Answering Back: Trickster in the Makerspace for People with Disabilities, John
Ploof

16. Beyond the Manifestos: Equity and Learning in Makerspaces, Grace

Wingo
and
Kimberly
M.
Sheridan

17. ArtMakerSpace as Tactical Pedagogy: Meaningful Making in a Studio Art Context, Steve
Ciampaglia
and
Kerry
Richardson

18. Future Fiber Feminism and Change Through Craft, Courtney

Lee
Weida

19. Cave of Secrets, Liz

Collins

20. Thinking in Water: The Process of Collaborative Craft as Social Practice, Christen
Sperry-Garcia,
Felix
Rodriguez,
Xalli
Zúñiga,
and
B.
Stephen
Carpenter,
II

21. Two Queer Academics Walk Into a Makerspace: Hacking Patriarchy and Knowledge, Rebecka
A.
Black
and
Anna
Ramsey

22. Xerocraft: Makerspaces, Democracy, Anarchism, and Education, Lino

Garibaldi

Section
Three:
Interdependence
and
Interdisciplinarity

23. DouglaPrieta: Sewing Together the Borderlands, Sowing Interdependence, Dwight

Metzger
and
Kelly
Watters

24. Patterns of Repair: Sewing with Court-Involved Teens, Alexandra

Lakind

25. Embroidered Narratives: Threads of the Selfie, R.

Darden
Bradshaw

26. The Innovation Institute: Making

Progress, David
Gran

27. The Crafts in Interdisciplinary Curriculum in School, Seija

Karppinen

28. A Letter to My Son, Shana

Pearlmutter

29. Mongolian Artists and Craft, Uranchimeg

Tsultemin

30. Queering Craft: Nick Cave, James

H.
Sanders
III

31. Mawadisidiwag miinawaa Wiidanokiindiwag // They Visit and Work Together, Dylan
AT
Miner

32. Feminist Visual Tactics, Ellen

Lesperance

33. Maker Culture in Nepal: Making vs. making,

Supriya
Manandhar

Section
Four:
Cultural
and
Environmental
Sustainability

34. Sacred Makers, Damara

Jacobs-Morris

35. The (Re)Making of Culture: Annotations of Practices in Secondary School Art in Singapore, Bee
Kim
Koh

36. Local Roots: Bridging Southern Craft and Museum Audiences through Materials and Engagement,
Carissa
DiCindio

37. Peruvian Artists-Crafters-Makers, Amanda

Alexander

38. Crafts as Sanctuary for Korean Immigrants, Ryan

Shin

39. Crafting Content for Innovative Learning in Design Education, Ramneek

Kaur
Majithia

40. Sustainable Craft Practices and Space-making in Tech Design Contexts, Smriti
Saraswat

41. From a Lost Paradise to an Elusive Utopia: Crafts and Sustainability, Nicholas
Houghton

42. If Fab Lab Is the Answer, What Is the Question? Maker Culture as a Method for a Sustainable Future,
Mira
Kallio-Tavin

43. The Walls Tell the Story: Making as Collective Force in the Evolution of an Earth Home Community, Cala
Coats

Section
Five:
Labor
and
Leisure

https://www.routledge.com/Makers-Crafters-Educators-Working-for-Cultural-Change/Garber-Hochtritt-Sharma/p/book/9781138896192 2/4
10/23/2018 About Routledge - Routledge

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7592 MAKERS CRAFTERS A2.qxp_6 x 9 21/06/2018 15:52 Page 86

18
FUTURE FIBER FEMINISM AND
CHANGE THROUGH CRAFT
Courtney Lee Weida

Craft and Activism in the Classroom

I have experimented across several artistic media, as an artist and teacher, but I
have always been particularly drawn to the crafts, such as ceramics, basketry, and
fiber. This “soft stuff” has enthralled me, and also helped me to make sense of
intuitively felt connections between activism and feminism in education. My
research into and teaching about craft has been inspired, in part, by Glenn
Adamson’s definition that encompassed objects, along with deeper approaches,
attitudes, and actions of craftspeople. His writing and my own work have
cultivated an integrated and collective sense of making, talking, and writing
about craftwork that has informed my work and the resources I use when
teaching young people.
In one project, together art education students and I explored the International
Fiber Collaborative (IFC) and its Gas Station Project, a collection of panels from
individuals and communities that question oil dependency. Founder/artist Jennifer
Marsh, working with on-site volunteers, connected panels sent from around the
globe into a quilt, and draped the massive covering over an abandoned New
York gas station. Through their creative processes, global makers—including
students I worked with—represented multiple ecological realizations, for example
that petroleum fuels the transport of fiber, or that petroleum is often an ingredient
in yarns and fabrics, inspiring shifts in processes and materials. Other contributors
reflected on ecology by depicting indigenous plants and wildlife threatened by
hydrofracking. The ephemeral installation of the Gas Station Project, a sort of
Christo-meets-grandma’s-knitting-circle endeavor, remains catalogued in online
photographs and captions.1
7592 MAKERS CRAFTERS A2.qxp_6 x 9 21/06/2018 15:52 Page 87

Change Through Feminist Craft 87

Although this project’s installation has come and gone, students engaging
with fiber and issues such as historical labor conditions might explore or recreate
the ongoing Sewing Rebellion.2 Founder Frau Fiber invites participants to alter,
mend, or make garments as political action against mass production and pollution.
Classroom communities can fashion clothing, combat consumer complacency,
and lessen environmental footprints through craft and political expression.

From Possibilities of Pussyhats, Exquisite Uteri, and

Pedagogy . . .
More recently, I introduced similar fiber projects to graduate students for
consideration in their own future classrooms. Especially with the recent
presidential election and Education Secretary appointment, students hunger for
contemporary forms of activism and making appropriate to their classrooms and
students. Some of the graduate students explored K-12 involvement with the
Pussyhat Project3 and its intended purpose during the January 2017 March for
Women, subsequent rallies for related causes, and ongoing town halls with local
representatives. Like the Gas Station Project, the Pussyhat Project invites makers
to identify, reflect upon, and record their purposes in contributing to this
collaborative work. One student, for example, commemorated a deceased feminist
relative. Pussyhat makers send cards to marchers along with the hats, describing
their reasons for making and inviting further response and dialogue.
Though the Pussyhat Project has been criticized as a movement for its
emphasis on cis-gendered, white, and middle-class women in the symbolism of
the color pink and/or reference to female genitalia (St. Félix), it was inspired by
mass outrage towards grabbing women by the “pussy,” as well as meant as a
broad celebration of a diverse craft ethos and feminist craft traditions. Though
not unproblematic in its complexities, the Pussyhat Project represents ongoing,
large-scale political dialogue that encourages involvement from diverse
participants.
Other craft activist projects involve greater creativity and personalization in
the very design of the individual contribution. Through them, students delve
deeply and directly into iconographies of female bodies and related politics using
aesthetic means. Some advanced students I have worked with have gravitated
towards the Exquisite Uterus Project,4 inspired by the surrealist exquisite corpse
game and created by curators Klebesadel and Gates, inviting makers to transform
plain cloth with a line drawing of the uterus into individual representations of
restrictions on female reproduction (see Figure 18.1 for an example).
Anonymous submissions and group projects included reflection on local
reproductive care, concurrent voter registration, and other volunteer activism
relating to reproductive rights. When explored together, these fiber projects and
grassroots activities become practices of philosophy, integrating political statement
with artistic production.
7592 MAKERS CRAFTERS A2.qxp_6 x 9 21/06/2018 15:52 Page 88

88 Courtney Lee Weida

FIGURE 18.1 Courtney Lee Weida, Exquisite Uterus, 2013, beads and thread
Photo: Author

. . . To Craft Collectives and Craft Curriculum

In theorizing and justifying craft curricula in my own teaching, I am working to
reconcile craft and activism with resources like The Craftivist Collective.5
Founded by Sarah Corbett and other artists, this group promotes gentle protest,
combining craft with investigation of global issues. Their manifesto offers useful
suggestions for exploring craft and activism: valuing slow efforts in craft and
action; elevating and integrating craft as an activist tool; connecting crafting and
contemplation so that creating objects and generating movements can become
parallel activities that inform one another; cultivating small-scale action and
imperfections in grassroots communities and craft communities; and focusing on
values of humility, provocation, positivity, and change. The element of care
present in this form of craft and activism connects threads of grassroots action
with creativity.
The Craftivist Collective also emphasizes “hands, hearts, and head” to engage
young people through artistic expression (Barnes 52). In relating contemporary
craft with important art/craft history, Black Mountain poet-potter M. C.
Richards, who was a disciple of Waldorf Schools’ founder Rudolf Steiner, can
be illuminating. She stands out as a foremother of craft and activism in education,
 7592 MAKERS CRAFTERS A2.qxp_6 x 9 21/06/2018 15:52 Page 89

Change Through Feminist Craft 89

with her synthesis of deep ecology, philosophy, and craft practice. In her 1973
address to craftspeople, Richards urged, “there’s a connection we ought to make
between what we ‘profess’ as creatures sensitive to form, and what we practice
in community” (9). From my perspective, this guiding voice deepens our practice
as creators of objects as well as movements.

Conclusions: Continuing in Craft and Activism

Critical theorist and educator Henry Giroux reminds us that, “Hope at the
moment resides in struggling to reclaim the radical imagination and . . . fresh
educational opportunities to create a new language for political struggle along
with new modes of solidarity” (n.p.). Activist craftwork stands at the forefront
of new political language, with all its possibility to build community and creativity.
As craft and activism has yielded craftivism, we must seek fresh terms to
characterize feminist activism in the crafts. Feminist art offered feminist collage
as well as femmage, and it is time to embrace feminist craftivism, womanist
craftivism, or yet unknown feminist craft hybrids.

Notes
1 ifcprojects.com/the-gas-station-project/
2 For more information, please visit sewingrebellion.wordpress.com/about/
3 www.pussyhatproject.com/
4 exquisiteuterus.com/
5 craftivist-collective.com/

Works Cited
Adamson, Glenn. Thinking Through Craft. Berg, 2007.
Barnes, Henry. “Learning that Grows with the Learner: An Introduction to Waldorf
Education.” Educational Leadership, vol. 49, no. 2, 1991, pp. 52–54.
Giroux, Henry A. “War, Culture, Militarism, and Racist Violence under Trump.”
Truthout, 14 Dec. 2016. www.truth-out.org/news/item/38711-war-culture-militarism-
and-racist-violence-under-donald-trump. Accessed 31 Aug. 2017.
Richards, Mary Caroline. The Crossing Point: Selected Talks and Writings by M. C. Richards.
Wesleyan University Press, 1973.
St. Félix, Doreen. “The Day Harriet Tubman Wore a Pussyhat.” The New Yorker,
22 Jan. 2018, n.p. www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/the-day-
harriet-tubman-wore-a-pink-pussyhat. Accessed 8 Feb. 2018.

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