Stitch & Resist

Mixed Group
Craft, Textiles

Community Craftivists
Launched in March 2020, the Centre of Democracy’s STITCH & RESIST project was originally designed to encourage community groups and organisations to host craftivism workshops that would address specific issues. However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic we decided to re-imagine the project and broaden its goals.

For us at the Centre of Democracy, the disruptions to daily civic life caused by the global outbreak of COVID-19 raise an important question: How can we continue to resist injustice, engage in the everyday practice of democracy, and take care of our wellbeing in the midst of a pandemic?

STITCH & RESIST is a participatory craftivism project designed to address this urgent question by exploring how creativity can serve to help us stay well, stay connected and stay actively engaged with the causes we care about.

Centred around the beginner-friendly medium of cross-stitching, this project provides individual changemakers, community groups and organisations with the digital tools and resources necessary to create textile art that addresses the ideas, hopes and concerns of its makers.

The Centre of Democracy will collect images of these hand-stitched works (submitted via the STITCH & RESIST website by participants) and create a digital gallery that documents the issues and concerns of the time in which we now find ourselves.

Once the pandemic is over, the Centre of Democracy will curate a public exhibition in Adelaide, South Australia, that showcases a selection of the work created as part of the STITCH & RESIST project.

Sharing your cross stitch pieces with others is an important way of raising awareness of, and encouraging conversation about, the issues that matter to you. By submitting your work to the STITCH & RESIST gallery, your story will be shared and amplified for a long time to come.

This online exhibition is part of the 2020 SALA Festival, 1-31 August
CLICK HERE TO VIEW STITCH & RESIST!