Explore mending across Madison through a series of events on Thursday, November 2 starting at Madison Public Library and continuing to the James Watrous Gallery and UW-Madison's School of Human Ecology. You'll learn how our partners at The Sewing Machine Projects do free mending for the local community, tour two amazing exhibitions, and even have the opportunity to pick up a needle yourself at a mending workshop!
The Mending Project at Madison Public Library
Starting at Madison Public Library’s Central Library from 11am-12pm, The Sewing Machine Project will host a tour of the free, volunteer supported mending services available weekly to community members through their initiative,The Mending Project. Learn how this project has brought together disparate elements: sewers, machines, librarians, library spaces, library patrons and broken textiles to enrich conversations, community, skills, and relationships. Volunteer menders and coordinators, as well as their library partners, will share the history of the program and stories of their experience. Gain tips on how to begin your own community mending program or explore volunteering at the library.The mending session can be observed in room 211 and a Q+A will be presented in the Local History Room on the second floor.
You can see upcoming dates and times for FREE MENDING at the library online at madpl.org/freemending.
Following this tour at the library, visit other exhibitions and events downtown to learn more about mending in our community.
Exhibition Tour of MEND: the work of repair
November 2, 12:30pm | James Watrous Gallery at Overture Center for the Arts
Tour MEND: the work of repair with exhibition curator Jody Clowes. MEND features textile works by Heidi Parkes and sculpture by Glenn Williams, Siara Berry, Sylvie Rosenthal, and Jaymee Harvey Willms, artists whose work touches on diverse aspects of mending and repair. This exhibition was curated in the hopes of inspiring visitors to consider the repairs that could be made in their lives and communities, one step at a time.
Exhibition Tour of Social Threads: Making, Mending and Maintaining Community
November 2, 2:30pm | Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery at the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology
This exhibition brings together objects from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection that exemplify how textiles constitute and sustain communities. Through three central themes, making, mending, and maintaining, Social Threads emphasizes how, through textiles, communities around the globe can share stories and create change.
Visible Mending Workshop
November 2, 3pm | Ruth Davis Design Gallery at the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology
Learn the art and craft of two visible mending practices, darning and Sashiko stitching, with Mitch Frank, teaching faculty in sewn construction at UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology. Needles, thread, and some scrap fabric will be provided, but feel free to bring any materials you’d like to work with.