Published: April 2, 2021
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Dear Friends,
Please pass along the following information about an opportunity to engage in an international community craft project in response to our climate crisis.
The Loving Earth Project aims to help a wide range of people engage with the challenges of living more sustainably, motivated by love. It uses arts and crafts, and particularly a community textile project, to help us engage with the issues without being overwhelmed by them.
Started by a few Quakers in 2019, this project invites individuals and groups alike to explore how our own actions can influence the future of something, someone, or somewhere they love.
This exploration can take many forms, including the creation of textile panels which (accompanied by short texts) are included in a travelling exhibition.
You can make a textile panel on your own or join events we’re running. We host free online workshops to help people get started as well as online chats for panel makers; other courses and workshops are also available (get in touch with any specific requests), and you’re welcome to set up your own. We encourage craft groups, faith groups, community groups, and any interested individuals to get involved.
The rich variety of textile works and the short but thoughtful texts that accompany them also engage and inspire viewers in powerful ways. We’re planning to display the exhibition in Glasgow at the time of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, in autumn 2021, and we hope that it will tour widely thereafter. It would be great if these displays represented a wide variety of places and communities around the world, to remind people of what’s at stake in the face of climate breakdown and what people are already doing about it. Why not make a panel to represent your community, your home, or your sustainability project, to add to the Loving Earth exhibition?
We have a number of workshops coming up in the next few weeks, at different times of day and each with a slightly different focus, to get you started: on Saturday, 10 April, two events focus on places that we love or see as sacred. On Thursday, 22 April (Earth Day), a workshop focuses on where we find strength in the face of such challenges. And in May we have one focusing on biodiversity. We also have regular informal online chats for panel makers to share experience and inspiration.
The Loving Earth Project is run in a partnership between the Quaker Arts Network, Woodbrooke, and others; Woodbrooke’s work in the project is part of their sustainability work for Quakers in Britain, and the Quaker Arts Network is responsible for the exhibiting and outreach elements of the project. If you or your organization are interested in supporting the project, through publicity, advice, practical help, hosting a display, funding, or in other ways, we would love to hear about this as well.
Contact us at: lovingearthproject-AT-gmail-DOT-com
from Matt Rosen, Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre (4/1/2021)