Our creative team

This exhibition is an act of collaboration between 37 creative individuals from Asia, Africa and North America, pictured below. After living through the COVID-19 pandemic we decided to tell our story through fiber and digital art. The act of telling has been deeply therapeutic and - we hope - shown that crisis can produce art. We also hope that our stories will provide a unique record of the pandemic. Most members of our group are under 21.

The original idea came from The Advocacy Project, a Washington-based nonprofit that supports community-based advocacy and offers partners the chance to tell their story through quilts. AP put out the word for COVID stories in June 2020 and has so far received 28 stories from Nepal, Zimbabwe and the US. The artists are all profiled in this exhibition. Iain, Grace and Abby comprise the AP team.

The stories from Nepal describe the isolation caused by a pandemic in a country where families are at the heart of society and even drawing water - normally a social activity - can pose a mortal threat. Nepal is once again under lock-down and our hearts go out to Kushma, Alina and Sarita, who made the remarkable designs from Nepal. All three artists lost parents during Nepal’s long civil war, making this latest ordeal even more distressing.

Africa has not suffered as badly as Asia, but the stories from Zimbabwe show that a high price that has been paid, particularly in poor communities. The authorities imposed a harsh lock-down which punished families and pushed many to the brink of starvation. Vimbai, Tanatswa, Ruwaze, Miriam, Evelyn, Prisca, Trish, Bybit, Lynes, Lyssa, Rosemary and Constance contributed stories.

The US stories were embroidered by nine students from the Wakefield High School, in Arlington Virginia: Sofia, Layla, Elena, Stephanie, Nathalie, Kate, Ann, Ainsley, and Leah. Their designs describe how the pandemic has messed with our minds. We can all relate.

These 28 stories have been assembled into three spectacular quilts by American quilters: Colleen (Wisconsin), Beth (Virginia) and Anne (North Carolina). The quilts were first shown in real time on April 22, 2021 at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington.

This digital exhibition is the brainchild of Givology, the online giving platform that funds innovative education initiatives. This site was built by Joyce, Cynthia, Anika, Narayan and Nicolas. Jiashan, a well-known digital artist who is also part of the Givology team, has kindly made several digital images (NFTs) from the embroidered Nepal squares. This is taking story-telling to the next level and we will offer Jiashan’s design for sale. All proceeds will go to emergency COVID appeal for Nepal which we will launch next week.

A huge thanks to Jiashan and the many other friends who have donated their time and skills to this event. Our thanks to Pam and Melanie from Humanity United, which has funded AP’s quilt program and made this project possible.

Finally - if you want also like to contribute your own COVID story to this exhibition, take a photo of your design, add a caption and send it to stitchingCOVID@advocacynet.org We will continue adding stories as they reach us.

We’d love to hear from you. Please send feedback to iain@advocacynet.org or Joyce.meng@givology.org.

Enjoy the show!