Community Cloth
Community Cloth (2010) was created with immigrant and refugee children at the Doris Henderson Newcomer School, Greensboro, NC during a mixed media residency. The Community Cloth project was made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council and educational support from Green Hill Center for NC Art.
This large mixed media work--comprised of international maps fused to heavy paper and backed with linen--contains hundreds of words written in dozens of languages and was created with students at the Newcomer School in Greensboro. Middle school students created vivid palette colors by hand dying lengths of silk organza. Students (52 nations are represented at the Newcomer School) each identified a key word to stand by. Words such as peace, home, dream, freedom, love, beauty, friend became part of the collaborative vocabulary. Students penned their words both in English and in their native languages. Large sweeping stencils were made in paper and transferred onto the hand dyed silk organza. Students fused words onto the maps creating intriguing shapes and complex colors. The colorful collages were machine stitched and cut into smaller units, hand stitching hundreds of pieces together creating a dynamic work that permanently hangs in the Newcomer School Library.
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