The Immigrant Yarn Project-KnitNight

Would you like to be part of a nation-wide community art project?

Hundreds of artist / knitter / activists from around the country are collaborating in a single, magnificent gesture of unity, solidarity, and yarn-based creativity in a celebration of our nation’s glorious diversity. Organized nationally by Enactivist, a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3), the project is brought to Indianapolis by Mary Jo Bayliss. There is no cost at all to be part of this project and it is a purely democratic (by the people) and colossal work of public art, representing a cross section of the American experience. We think it’s time to rise above division and come together to celebrate what we all have in common – citizenry in a nation composed of diverse backgrounds, families, politics, faiths, identities and ideas.

Countless small squares and pieces have come into the studio, and more knitted by immigrants and their descendants arrive everyday. From high schools to retirement centers, from California to Maine, we have collected these works of art, representing a personal or familial story. The pieces are compiled, sewn together and fashioned into over 100 sculptural columns, in a single colossal work of yarn-based art. First displayed at Fort Point National Historic Site, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in May 2019, and then in locations throughout the USA, the Immigrant Yarn Project will provide a testament to the creative spirit of our shared immigrant heritage. It is a celebration of our national gestalt, where the whole is different and as magnificent as the sum of its parts.

See https://enactivist.org/ to learn more about the organization behind this nationwide public art project.