"Art can impact the social context of family dislocations and can serve as a powerful tool in encouraging an open national dialogue about Zero Tolerance in our country"
So (sew) America Cares is a participatory social art project with a commitment to raise awareness about the lives of the children separated from their parents at the border. All the faces stitched together strengthen the very fabric of our own society.
In 2018 a Zero Tolerance immigration policy was announced, requiring that all families who cross the border shall not only be separated but also charged in federal court with the misdemeanor crime of illegal entry.
This Project’s mission is to advocate for these children and to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to participate. Thread by thread, fiber by fiber, a participating community will increase its understanding of the circumstances of these children who never asked to be illegal aliens. The project consists of 10 different faces that will be repeated 100 times each to add 1000 faces. The faces had been laser etched on raw canvas to allow the participant to use any kind of thread, yarn, wool, fabric, paint etc. So (sew) America Cares has a plan: to "sew" them back, to never allow these children to be lost again, to create a quilt of 1000 faces representing a portion of these children.
We cannot allow these traumatized children to disappear and in time, be forgotten.People are encouraged to stitch, sew, knit, knot, crochet, embroider, or braid these drawings so as to symbolically recover these children’s faces and lives again.
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So (sew) America Cares is an international call for people to participate and raise awareness as to the consequences of this immigration policy and its devastating effect on children. As citizen, artist, mother and a child that suffered being separated from my family for eight years, I am concerned about the hundreds of separated children across our country.
FAMA - Co-Founders
WE ARE AN ARTIST COLLECTIVE ADVOCATING FOR THE FIBER ARTS.
Fiber Artists Miami Association is an artist-initiated group that organized during the months of confinement from the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020.
Miami-based Cuban artists Aurora Molina, Alina Rodriguez-Rojo,
Uruguayan artist Evelyn Politzer, and a group of artists founded FAMA to socially engage members and the community through education,
exhibitions, virtual and live workshops, social media, and websites to
advance and elevate textile traditions and contemporary fibers.
FAMA received the 2021 Oolite Arts Creative Awards under Evelyn
Politzer’s grant “Threading Thoughts” , an artist residency award from
Miami Beach Cultural Affairs Office “Open House” the same year and 2022 Oolite Arts creative Award under Aurora Molina to FAMA’s first to create the Textile Biennial, serving as a platform to unite local and international curators, institutions, educators, and textile artists in dialogue to demystify the world of contemporary textile art.
THE AMERICAN DENIM
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This project invites visitors to delve into denim jeans' symbolic, artistic, and historical significance. As guests explore MIFA and satellite venues, they will encounter a world of woven surfaces infused with heritage, complemented by captivating installations that showcase the limitless potential of fiber arts.
This Annual Member's Exhibition of FAMA and Recognized Local and International Artists goes beyond showcasing artwork; it creates a platform for dialogue and discussion. Through thought-provoking English and Spanish discussions held at various cultural venues across the city, artists and community members can share their voices fostering inclusivity and celebrating diverse perspectives.
WOMEN PULLING AT THE THREADS OF SOCIAL DISCOURSE
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Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse has always focused on a practice known as “femmage,” which refers to creative spheres historically associated with femininity: scrap-booking, sewing, knitting, patching, embroidery, and quilting. While men are participants in these crafts, it is the presumed silence and femininity of these activities that allows the works to take on a subversive tone. She may sew in private, but Her words and stitches are keys to exploring what underlying qualities hold or break apart the social fabric.
Historically, the practice of quilting evolved from a material need—warmth—as well as an emotional need to tell stories and, to a certain degree, to obtain a sense of immortality through remembrance. As Aunt Jane says: today, the material need really no longer drives the artist toward this practice, but the need to tell stories is still very much the force behind the quilt. The process of quilting involves taking many different fabric and thread segments, arranging and making them into one complete whole, so it becomes the epitome of harmoniously unifying the different elements of life. As quilts become a platform on which to preach about what is happening in our world, and in so doing become the lesson board from which we should learn, they come to reflect a place of warmth and protection within which we can stride forward to enact change together.
After spending most of 2020 apart, and lacking full unity in 2021—both years in turmoil—many still seek connections with those they love and ideals that they can embrace and be proud of. This year’s edition, FAMA & Guests Quilts, speaks on the many different aspects of life lived, both socially and privately, weaving those experiences into one large quilt that unites the artists, their stories and in many cases, their answers to what plagues us. They present a message on how society can break free and cure itself from distance, hate, separatism, and all the negatives that have defined these last two years.
Interestingly, last year’s edition of the exhibition paid homage to the women of the Suffrage who fought for the rights women enjoy today; this year’s edition pays homage to the textile artists of today who are still trying to piecemeal a better world to leave to future generations.