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Community Members Come Together To Create Lasting Artwork

http://youtu.be/YyF-vOzPQxo

The Las Cruces Creates exhibit at the New Mexico State University closes this weekend, but the results of a community-weaving project were unveiled last night.

John Garrett directed the Community Weave at Las Cruces creates, a large piece that includes fabric from t-shirts donated by the community. He says the project was about more than creating art.

“Creating community, of people interacting together” Garrett said. “It became part of the art. So, the process was just as important in this project as the final product.”

Ann Angelo worked on the weave; she said it’s easy to see that many people were involved in creating it.

“You can tell all the different hands that were involved in it,” Angelo said. “Even though the stitch is roughly the same, everybody’s tension, everybody’s hand in it was different. So, you can see where someone had left off and a new person had come in and started it. Even though the stitch style is the same.”

About 2-dozen community members worked on this loom located inside the gallery.

John Garrett said that watching it be created was part of the art.

“It was also interesting to set up a weaving studio in the gallery,” Garrett said. “It’s a whole different context than sort of a private space. This really made that studio a public space.”

Ann Angelo said it was a great way to create a sense of community.

“I ended up seeing people that I hadn’t seen in months, sometimes years,” Angelo said. “And meeting people I’d never met before. Some people were very familiar with the process of weaving, and there is some beautiful interesting stitching in it. And then others like myself were beginners, and some people had never sat down at a loom before. So, it was just fun to see different people and different levels, and that’s part of what makes it the way it is.”

She said she would love to see another community project like this done in the future.

“And there is something nice about Las Cruces that is very community oriented anyway,” Angelo said. “So, I think the more this type of thing happens the more people will get involved in it.”

The Community Weave will find it’s permanent home at a building on the NMSU campus.

Samantha Sonner was a multimedia reporter for KRWG- TV/FM.