Common Space – There is No There: Mixed Fibers Workshop

Through the Common Space initiative, Fleisher is partnering with One Book, One Philadelphia, the signature program of the Free Library that promotes literacy, library usage, and civic dialogue by encouraging the entire greater Philadelphia area to come together through reading and discussing a single book. From January 22 to March 18, nearly 100 events and programs will center on Tommy Orange’s award-winning novel, There There.

Through the art of knitting you will explore the themes of gentrification and displacement making a collective work of art. Using knitting looms and knit picks/hooks you will each make a small part of a larger piece inspired by the flower of the Franklin Tree (Franklinia Alatamaha): The Franklin Tree was a flowering tree native only to the Altahama River valley in Georgia, extinct in the wild since the early 19th century. All the Franklin Trees known to exist today are descended from seed collected by William Bartram and propagated at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. If time permits, the participants will incorporate the smaller pieces made during the workshop into a large yarn installation. A future date for installing the work in an outdoor setting will also be decided. This workshop hopes to promote healing through art and to share the story of preservation leading to a beautiful tomorrow. We have limited knitting looms and hooks so please bring your own if you have them. If you have any yarn donations in white, yellow, or green, we would gladly accept them.

Free registration is required. Event capacity is limited to 30, due to the amount of available looms. If you can bring your own, please contact gsilva@fleisher.org to be added to the waitlist.

About the artist:
Jessica Curtaz is a Philadelphia-based street artist and arts advocate. She transforms public space through installing crocheted weeds, insects, real and imaginary creatures, and other, over-sized flora and fauna onto the urban landscape, bringing a feminized craft out of the home and onto the streets.

Fleisher’s new Common Space initiative gives local organizations and artist collectives ‘the keys’ to Fleisher’s historic Sanctuary to present culturally diverse, community-driven projects. Designed to support Philadelphia-area performance artists by providing access to a unique venue and to help cultivate new audiences for their work, Common Space embodies our founder’s vision of the Sanctuary as a public space devoted to the appreciation and pursuit of art. All programs in this series are free and open to the public.