Weaving community

Weaving Community : Crocheting Project

Weaving Community, while being a reason to gather in the process of creating crochet mandalas, was also a way to weave networks and conversations, gather in intergenerational groups, and deal with the impacts of winter and isolation due to the pandemic on our mental health.

Throughout this project, spending time together while learning crochet became the reason for a series of virtual meeting spaces where newcomer, refugee, and immigrant women, along with long-term residents, learnt and taught each other about the roots of crochet, spoke of mental health, and embarked on multicultural knowledge sharing sessions. Together, we created over 100 crochet mandalas of diverse shapes, sizes, designs, and colours which have brought light to various corners of Toronto during different public art installations. Each stitch on the mandalas represents time spent together as a community during our online encounters.

This WeavingCommunity crocheting project was part of our iesToCommunity Winter activation program, and was made possible in partnership with the ShowLoveTO Program from the City of Toronto.

This project was created by Paola Gomez/MUSE Arts.