Special Event
Crochet Jam with Ramekon O’Arwisters
Join San Francisco-based artist Ramekon O’Arwisters for a public art-making event that invites you to think differently about how our histories are woven together. Steeped in the African-American folk art tradition of crocheting, this workshop explores connection, creativity, and liberation. Crochet in community and get inspired by the textiles, techniques, and themes in Suchitra Mattai’s work.
Attendees are encouraged to bring textiles or garments related to their own ancestries or personal experiences to transform into a community art piece.
No previous crochet experience required. All ages welcome. Refreshments provided.
Saturday, July 27th is the first in the Call & Response series: public programs inviting Bay Area artists and culture workers to respond to exhibitions at ICA SF through multidisciplinary workshops, activations, walkthroughs, and performances.
Ramekon O'Arwisters. Photo by David Schmitz.
Crochet Jam. Courtesy Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts
Crochet Jam at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center
“Growing up in Jim Crow South during the Civil Rights Movement, I had a safe haven, quilting with my grandmother where I was embraced, important and special. These early memories prompted my nascent series of unique crocheted, ceramic sculptures, Mending. Employing ordinary household or decorative pottery, broken and discarded, I combined traditional crafts into a dimensional woven tapestry, stripping both cloth and ceramic of their intended function.
I am the founder of Crochet Jam, a community-arts project infused with folk-art traditions that foster a creative culture in cooperative relationships. Born in Kernersville, North Carolina, I am earned a M.Div. from Duke University Divinity School in 1986. I was an artist-in-residence at the de Young Museum, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. Grants and Awards include Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue, NY, the San Francisco Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Program. I received the 2014 Eureka Fellow, awarded by the Fleishhacker Foundation in San Francisco and a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2021. My work has been featured in the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, 7×7 Magazine, Artnet, the San Francisco Examiner, and Brian Boucher’s Daily Dispatch.”
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