Yarn bombing project installed on campus The Commonwealth Times

April 26, 2023Spectrum EditorArt + Culture, Multimedia, Spectrum, Spectrum, Spectrum0

Emily Richardson, Staff Writer

A public art installation headed by VCUarts’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee will see 10 to 12 trees on campus covered in knitted and crocheted works, in a process called yarn bombing.

The installation will be up by May 6, on display by the walkway outside Shafer Court Dining Center for six weeks, according to Diana Caramat, project lead and member of the VCUarts Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee.

"[The] committee came together to present a community-engaged project to increase minority public art engagement since we live in a minority-prevalent city," Caramat said. "We wanted to do it through a collaborative, eco-friendly art project."

Yarn bombing — covering objects in public spaces with knitted or crocheted works — was the chosen medium for the project because of a large donation of yarn the school received from a retired saleswoman, Caramat said. Considering their own background in the public art process and the donation, yarn bombing was a natural choice for the project, they said.

Approximately 100 people are participating in the project and represent over 20 departments at VCU, not limited to the School of the Arts, according to Caramat.

"Because the group is so diverse, they’ve been meeting people in medical, in general education, in the sciences," Caramat said. "It's been really nice for them to have a mixing pot but come together to do a very cathartic craft."

Every participant has a different reason for being there, such as community building, making connections or even to progress their career, Caramat said.

The overarching message of the project is community-connectedness and an appreciation for diversity, according to Caramat.

"It distills down to that," Caramat said. "Creating a connected community, embracing and celebrating diversity and learning new creative skills together."

Caera Harrison, junior fashion merchandising student, started crocheting last year when she was sick with COVID-19. The yarn bombing project has been an opportunity to try out a knitting machine, which resulted in her buying her own, she said.

"I had wanted to learn for a while because knitting is hard, and I didn't understand it," Harrison said. "Diana brought her knitting machine in one day and taught me how to use it, which was great."

The team had measured the trees and organized them into groups based on their size, then allowed participants to pick which trees they wanted to work on pieces for, according to Harrison.

Harrison enjoys working on the project, as she's never done anything collaborative with fiber arts, she said.

"It can be kind of hard to find a project that's collaborative in crocheting or knitting, and I definitely feel like it's becoming a lot more popular now," Harrison said. "It's fun to work with other people. I’ve also met some people that I otherwise would never talk to or come across."

Dani Henry, a freshman planning to study communication arts, said she was excited by the opportunity of the project as she's crotched as a hobby since the third grade.

"Being able to be around people that are into the similar interest of crochet and knitting — it's nice to have that community," Henry said.

Henry has been a part of the project since the very first meeting at the beginning of this semester, and admires the group's welcoming community, she said.

"Everybody is so welcoming, you can just talk to anyone," Henry said. "Everybody is an equal. It's really nice."

The project is a good opportunity to expose people to crochet and the possibilities of yarn as a medium, Henry said.

"A lot of people aren't exposed to crochet as much as they are knitting," Henry said. "To be able to show all these things that we can do with yarn and create public art pieces for people to enjoy, it's really fulfilling."