#quiltsforpulse: Connected and shared socio-political activism through craftivism

With greater attention to politics in the study of learning, the need to design for community-based engagement to address social issues has become essential. An apt context to study processes of community-based engagement is craftivism. An alignment of craft and activism, craftivism utilizes the potential of crafts to address social issues, typically through socially-disruptive actions. With its socio-political nature, craftivism provides a direct link to topics of equity and social justice. For instance, following the mass shooting in Pulse, a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild sent out a call for 102 heart quilts to be distributed to survivors and victims’ loved ones. The #quiltsforpulse movement received significant recognition and surpassed its goal over tenfold. Quilting communities have long been involved in charity work and community-based engagement. Despite the potential of the craft to address a social cause, its association with the domestic sphere in providing warmth and comfort has undermined its ability to further social causes. Such tensions present quilting as a compelling context to examine emergent forms of community-based engagement. Thus, we asked: How do the processes of quilting inform community-based engagement with a social cause? This poster presents initial findings of an embedded online-offline ethnography to trace tensions between established visions of craftivism and the process of a quilting group’s engagement with #quiltsforpulse. We identified five themes that inform a new view of a craft-specific community engagement, with implications that can contribute toward addressing social issues by building on community preferences.