Lawton Gallery to host Craftivism exhibit

GREEN BAY — “Craftivism: Reclaiming Craft and Creating Community” is the next featured exhibit at the Lawton Gallery on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.

A group exhibition—guest curated by Faythe Levine of the Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery in Milwaukee—features artists working at the intersection of craft, activism, feminism, environmentalism, DIY, street culture and creative reclamation in order to build communities capable of intervening in the world around us.

The Lawton Gallery hosts the exhibit from Oct. 9-30.

Craftivism, according to artists featured in the exhibit, has four principles:

• Craft is powerful.
With its depth and breadth, anything you want, you can probably get from a person in your own community.

• Craft is personal.
To know something is made by hand, by someone who cares that you like it, makes that object more enjoyable.

• Craft is political.
Crafters want people to rethink corporate culture and consumerism.

• Craft is possible.
Everybody can create something.

The exhibition’s opening reception is 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9.  Faythe Levine will talk about the exhibition at 5 p.m.

Craftivists whose work will be featured in the exhibition include Kate Bingaman-Burt, Amy Carlton, Cinnamon Cooper, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Jennifer Marsh, Cat Mazza, Handmade Nation, Lisa Solomon, Stephanie Syjuco and Melissa Vogley Woods.

Levine, the guest curator, has a long history as a crafter, organizer and promoter of craft events. She recently co-authored with Cortney Heimel the book “Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design,” published this year by Princeton Architectural Press.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information contact Lawton Gallery Curator Stephen Perkins at (920) 465-2271 or visit http://www.uwgb.edu/lawton.

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