One of the coolest things about writing about craftivism has to be all the amazing events/projects/people I get introduced to! Faythe Levine sent me an email about an amazing project that her friend Tanya Aguiniga is currently doing. Tanya is trying raise $7,000 for this project, and could use your donation if you have some change to spare for crafters helping crafters. Here’s a little excerpt from the project’s website about what Tanya is doing with this new project called Artists Helping Artisans.

I am a furniture designer/maker looking to start a brand new artist collaborative, Artists Helping Artisans (AHA), which will focus on helping artisans in marginalized communities whose craft traditions or livelihoods are at risk. With the current economic crisis, and tourism dwindling, many of these craft communities are in dire need of help.

A large scale exhibition of my work is scheduled for Sept 2010 at MACLA, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latinoamericana, in San Jose during the Zero1 Biennial. MACLA has allowed me to use the exhibition to showcase (and kickstart) collaborative works with artisans—and for the first time in my art career, allow me to become a catalyst for social change through the creation of craft.

I have wanted to create collaborative works with artisans I met in Chiapas and Oaxaca since a trip in 2007. For the MACLA exhibition, I plan to spend June 2010 in the highlands of Chiapas working with Mayan women to collaboratively create new functional art pieces. Chiapas is a place whose struggle for indigenous cultural preservation has led to one of the richest artisanal traditions in Mexico, and for the same reasons, is one of the most economically repressed regions.

Also… Have you heard about the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs happening in Seattle August 13-15? Along with an awesome schedule of events, they’ve also assembled a fantastic list of speakers! Although I’m biased, I think Susan Beal’s Craft Activism discussion will be brilliant!


[Photos above of Chiapas, where Tanya is proposing to do this work, from Flickr users skino and magnusvk, respectively.]