Co-Crafting Democracy at RIT 2024

THANK YOU to our Co-Crafting Democracy Artists, Makers, and Friends for submitting your work:

Susan B. Aiello; Cézanne Black; Gary Boston; Leslie Bradfield; Heather Champ; Margaret Cherre; Ellen Connolly Knapp; Tisha Dolton; Dee  Eisner; Michele Follbaum; Jen Haefeli; Catherine McGeehin Heilferty; Brianna Hill; Katherine Hodges; Carol Keuhn; Lisa DeFrancesco; Deplorable Knitter; Denise Kooperman; Jenn LaMastra; Hinda Mandell; Kate McBain; Sue Petersen; Lillie S.; Heather Schulte; Elizabeth M.  Shultz; Adrienne  Sloane; and Amy Wells.

YOUR WORK MADE THE SHOW!
 

Below are images of the installation at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. The exhibit was on view from November 13, 2024- December 13, 2024. Photos below taken by Juilee Decker. You are welcome to use these, please simply point to this URL for credit, or cite Juilee Decker with image credit.

To read the initial call, scroll down.

RECEPTION, THURS., NOVEMBER 13, 2024

• Arrival and welcome by the Drs. Juilee Decker, Hinda Mandell, and Taj Smith
• 5:20-5:30 comments by Betty Bayer, Professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, introduced by Hinda
• 5:30-5:40 table runner conversation with artist Jen Haefeli, facilitated by Juilee
• 5:40-5:50 guidance on processing the election, facilitated by Taj

Photos below taken by Juilee Decker. You are welcome to use these, please simply point to this URL for credit, or cite Juilee Decker with image credit.

Read about the exhibit here: https://www.rit.edu/diversity/newsletter/november-2024/story/co-crafting-democracy-explored-through-art-new-exhibition.

CALL FOR ARTISTS, POSTED SUMMER 2024:
You may download this call as a PDF here. You may submit your work via this Google Form. You must be logged in to Google to submit.

Open call for fiber-based work

University Gallery, Rochester Institute of Technology

Exhibition dates: November 13-December 13, 2024

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14, 2024, 5-7 pm

Deadline for submission: October 25, 2024

The exhibition Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism debuted in Rochester, New York in 2019 – home to Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass – along with an eponymous catalogue (RIT Press, 2019). Works by the 30 artists explored how handwork probes the vulnerabilities of citizenship status, while also works toward positive social change. Over the following two years, the exhibit traveled to four additional venues in the Northeast U.S., realizing opportunities for community, conversation, and critique. The exhibition returned in an entirely new form – a “redux” that sought to co-craft democracy, as a debut exhibition at the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, in summer 2024.

Curators Juilee Decker and Hinda Mandell, in continuously reviving their show’s concept, are expanding the notion of democracy to the exhibition form itself: all work that is submitted to the show will be accepted and displayed.* We invite you to submit your fiber-forward handwork to be included in this exhibition as it returns to RIT for the first time since 2019.

“Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism,” now entering its third show concept, will be unveiled on November 13, 2024, one week after the U.S. presidential election, at University Gallery on the RIT campus. In a unique twist, exhibition participants will be creating work prior to the 2024 election, but exhibition attendees will be viewing the work for the first time after the election. This offers a poignant opportunity to consider the intersecting roles of timing, audience, and self-expression with major national events in the life cycle of politically engaged craftmaking and display. Thus we ask makers in their work and their accompanying text to respond to the prompt: What role can you play in “co-crafting democracy” leading up to, and following, the 2024 U.S. presidential election?

All creatives, makers, craftspeople, designers, and artists currently residing in the U.S. are invited to submit work (only one submission per person, please). RIT students, faculty, staff and alumni are especially encouraged to participate and submit work to “Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism.” Please consider the following guidelines to have your work included in “Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism:”

1. The dominant medium of the work must be fiber-based.
2. Work must sufficiently address the theme of this call: What role can you play in “co-crafting democracy” leading up to, and following, the 2024 U.S. presidential election?
   NOTE: It is up to each individual submitter to interpret this prompt through their fiber work.
3. Only one work may be submitted by an artist.
4. Work must be created in 2024.
5. Work must not exceed the size of 20 inches X 24 inches (as in 2024!).
6. Work must be accompanied by the following information: artist’s name; city/state location of residency; Instagram handle where appropriate; title of the work; year of the work (must be 2024).
7. Work may be accompanied by a clear, short statement in any format (full sentences, single words, poetry, haiku, emoji) addressing the theme, in 47 words or less: What role can you play in “co-crafting democracy” leading up to, and following, the 2024 U.S. presidential election?
8. Work must be ready to hang (with dowel rod, hooks, Velcro, hanging wire, or other means provided by the artist).
9. Work must be received by October 25, 2024, by either mailing the work to:

Prof. Juilee Decker, Museum Studies Program/CCD Exhibit, RIT College of Liberal Arts, Room 3303-Liberal Arts Building, Rochester, NY, 14623.
Or dropped off in person prior to or on October 25.

All drop-offs must be confirmed via prior arrangement. Please reach out to curators via email: craftingdemocracy@gmail.com.  

1. Artists must include a pre-paid return shipping label if they cannot retrieve their work in person, following the conclusion of the exhibition. 
2. The last day for public access to the exhibit is Friday, December 13, 2024. Work must be retrieved by the artist on December 14, 2024, between the hours of noon-4:00 pm. Otherwise, work will be returned to the artist via mail in January 2025 (after holiday mail).
3. Work must be available for the entirety of the exhibition, November 13-December 13, 2024.
4. Everyone is invited to submit fiber-based work based on the exhibition’s prompt, but participants must currently reside in the U.S.

How to submit your work:

1.      By October 25, 2024, mail work to: Prof. Juilee Decker, Museum Studies Program/CCD Exhibit, RIT College of Liberal Arts, Room 3303-Liberal Arts Building, Rochester, NY, 14623

2.      Also by October 25, 2024, email submit information about the work through Google Forms: https://forms.gle/iCvJebH2s5XhAa787 OR by emailing craftingdemocracy@gmail.com the following information:

1. a high-res photo of the work in the show
2. artist’s name
3. title of the work
4. year of the work (must be 2024)
5. city/state location of residency
6. Instagram handle where appropriate

Incomplete submissions will not be accepted. And artists will not be notified of this.

1. Work may be accompanied by a clear, short statement in any format (full sentences, single words, poetry, haiku, emoji) addressing the theme, in 47 words or less: What role can you play in “co-crafting democracy” leading up to, and following, the 2024 U.S. presidential election?

NOTE: Statements will not be edited. If the statement exceeds 47 words, any words/emojis beyond the 47^th will not appear with the work.

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14, 2024 in University Gallery on the RIT campus:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/C5ARxttnCK2Rraak8

https://www.rit.edu/universitygallery/

Questions can be directed to all three emails: the co-curators and their team: Juilee Decker (jdgsh@rit.edu ) and Hinda Mandell (hbmgpt@rit.edu) and craftingdemocracy@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing the creative and tactile ways in which you “co-craft democracy!”

*Exhibition curators Juilee Decker and Hinda Mandell reserve the right to exclude submissions that are obscene or incendiary. Additionally, submission of the work and its required elements grants the exhibition curators the right to use the materials in promoting the show. Exhibition Logo design by Marnie Soom, RIT Press.