June 13 – July 20, 2023 • Mary Giles Gallery
The Collective Mending Sessions rely on the communal actions of mending together. By synthesizing the slow fiber movement’s focus on locality, quality, and craftsmanship with the ancient practice of mending, I am creating new forms of communal making. With my work, I contribute to relevant and timely discussions reframing the value of care and connection to our neighbors and our possessions. I give voice and hold space for stories of repair, loss, and kinship.
-Catherine Reinhart, Founder, The Collective Mending Sessions
The Collective Mending Sessions is a series of socially engaged workshops led by artist Catherine Reinhart, centered on collectively mending abandoned quilts. This project cultivates care for cloth and community through the meditative process of slow stitching. The driving metaphorical question behind The Collective Mending Sessions is, “How do we MEND our communities?”
The work on display includes mended and stitched quilts made by hundreds of hands as they passed through many communities where participants stitched onto the quilts and quilt squares. Textile Center hosted Catherine Reinhart and The Collective Mending Sessions as part of the Mining Mending program for two free public workshops on June 7, to begin work on a new quilt. Participants continued to stitch on the quilt during open mending sessions on June 14, 21, and 28, from 5 – 7:30 pm at Textile Center, in a collaboration with our community!
