Everyone is familiar with textiles—we wear them every day—but what if the woven fabric of a loom could also weave together the fabric of community?
That’s what a brand-new, long-term art project called the Weaving Community Project at the Genesis Centre aims to do.
Led by local artist and project manager Melisa Centofanti, participants have been able to take part in free workshops and have used a 6-foot communal cedar loom to create beautiful works of art.
On Sept. 5, that Earth Loom is having its current weaving project taken down so that a new work of art can be created by community members.
“The theme of that weaving will be food security. So some of the natural products that will be used in that weaving will be products from food, byproducts from food, so whether stocks from kale or corn husks, those kinds of materials,” said Centofanti.
Connection to the earth has been a large part of the project thus far.
Cece Marin, another artist and part of the project team, led a workshop on Aug. 30, which invited participants to learn how to transform old 100 per cent cotton bedsheets into fabric using natural dyes made from South Asian sources like Himalayan rhubarb, cutch, and chestnut.
Centofanti said the participants loved the workshop, and unlike many other similar commercially-run workshops, that one was offered for free from being a part of the Genesis Centre.
On Sept. 3, a new group of participants had the chance to do their own personal weaving project using similar techniques.
“Weaving communities is what we’re about. So what more appropriate thing than to have this beautiful art piece here and also something that the community can touch and feel and be part of,” said Genesis Centre Executive Director Sherry King.
She said having the Earth Loom as a long-term installation at the centre was a reflection of the work that the centre does to invite and connect with people daily.
“You can say, ‘hey, I put my finger on that I touched, that I made, that I’m part of that.’ It makes you feel like you belong, like this is home, and that’s what we try to strive for here at Genesis Center. This is your second home. This is where we want people to be. And not just a hub for the community, but really everything you might need in one spot,” said King.
Currently, the location of the Earth Loom is inside the Genesis Centre, owing to the smoke. Centofanti said it was designed to be placed into the mini-forest planted by the Calgary Climate Hub outside of the centre.
“My intention was like, let’s permanently install it near the mini-forest, and then we have something—there’s both synergies, right? The plants are nearby. We can make more weavings,” she said.
However, being mobile meant that the loom could be moved indoors for winter as well.
Centofanti said that on Sept. 26, the project would be doing a collaboration weave with the Calgary Climate Hub.
“It talks about eco consciousness, and what we can do learning about the projects of the Calgary Climate Hub, and also what we can do to reduce our eco footprint, all that kind of thing,” she said.
To sign up for free for the food security weaving, see www.eventbrite.ca/e/weaving-community-food-security-themed-tickets-1607859183099, and for the Calgary Climate Hub weaving, www.eventbrite.ca/e/community-weaving-ecological-awareness-tickets-1607933665879.
