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Pod Worlds by Christine Wertheim and Margaret Wertheim
SEA of STITCHES Hundreds came together to crochet a new exhibit at the NCMA by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER
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rochet enthusiasts across the state have been working their hooks and strands since September to create a sweeping coral reef on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art this month. Colorful sponges, flowering seagrasses, and billowing jellyfish — made completely from crocheted materials — create this whimsical marine world, and an enormous wall label nearby boasts the names of more than
300 participants who brought it to life. Angela Lombardi, director of audience engagement and outreach at the NCMA, cast a wide net when spearheading the creation of the North Carolina Satellite Reef. “We worked with yarn stores, local teachers, clubs, and college students,” she says. “An incredible level of community involvement was possible because the art form of crochet is so accessible.” The Satellite Reef will sit at the entrance of a multimedia exhibition called
Fault Lines: Art and the Environment, which explores humanity’s relationship to the earth. The crochet reef is in part composed of recycled and scrap materials. “We encouraged people to make plastic yarn out of grocery bags,” Lombardi says, “and we worked in partnership with North Carolina State University’s recycling center, which donated plastic film that could make yarn, keeping plastic out of the waste cycle.” Crochet yarn made from a Target bag? The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 43
