Stitching Stories of Miracles and Memories
September 19, 2010 - January 2, 2011
Stitching Stories is an exhibition that features embroidered and appliquéd fabric pictures called Cuadros, created by the women of two art cooperatives, Manos Anchashinas and Compacto Humano, located in Pamplona Alta, a shantytown situated on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Featured in this exhibition are Cuadros representing typical themes produced by the women, as well as a special commissioned project called Miracles and Memories.
For the women artists, the Cuadros serve a variety of purposes. Making and selling the art is an important economic enterprise that provides them with a way to support their families. Cuadros are also an avenue of self-expression, a means to demonstrate artistic skill, and a tangible way to create visual narratives of previous life in the countryside, experiences of migration, and current realities in the shantytowns. Whether the subjects are pastoral or political in nature, women depict themselves as integral members of their families and important participants in the events that shape their communities. With bits of cloth, textured fabric, and colored thread, the women of Pamplona Alta stitch together stories that underscore transitions in their lives. Illuminate episoded of generosity in a Peruvian shantytown make us attentive to the deeper meanings of joy and abundance.
This on-going project is conducted by Rebecca Berru Davis, a doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. For more information please contact Rebecca Berru Davis at berrumt@yahoo.com or see www.ConVida.org.
This programming is supported in part by a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs which includes funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Programming for Stitching Stories of Miracles and Memories is made possible with support from Northwestern Michigan College President Timothy Nelson and Nancy C. Johnson, the Northwestern Michigan College Global Initiative, the Traverse Area Chamber of Commerce’s Dennos Global Diversity project, and the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana
Housing sponsors for Celebrating Women events are the Tamarack Lodge, Cambria Suites, and Days Inn of Traverse City.
Media sponsors for Celebrating Women events are TV7&4 and the Northern Express
