About WeavingWisdom
WEAVING WISDOM : FABRICS AND THE STORIES THEY TELL
Weaving Wisdom is a community-based intergenerational project that brings grandparents, parents, teenagers, and children together to discuss how quilted, woven, and printed fabrics convey information about the history, culture, mores, hopes, and dreams of individuals within a given culture. During these conversations, older and younger adults are encouraged to open up to each other and share personal stories, ideas, and feelings-thereby increasing communication and hopefully understanding between generations. At the end of the discussion and sharing, there is a hands-on, simple weaving or printing project that the older adults engage in with their teenagers and children.
Weaving Wisdom consists of lectures, workshops, and hands-on activities that are intergenerational. The workshops are attended by various cultural groups, including children and parents of American, African, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and European ancestry. Young people in grades k-12 attend the lectures, workshops and participate in hands-on weaving and printmaking activities. At least one parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent must accompany each young person. Intergenerational communication occurs when the older adults tell stories about their experiences with fabrics with the entire group. The Weaving Wisdom organizers provide factual information and additional stories about American quilts, Woven Kente and Adinkra Cloths from Ghana West Africa, before the younger people assisted by the older adults engage in making handwoven bracelets, Gods Eyes and cardboard block printed fabrics.
Approximately seven workshops and exhibitions are held each year. We want to increase the number to twelve or more and develop a model and handbook that others could use to replicate the fabric workshops and design similar arts workshops for music, dance, and theater.
At this point, Kente cloth (handwoven colorful woven strips) and Adinkra Cloth (a handprinted cloth that contains symbols representing proverbs) have become the focal point and primary interest of the groups interested in sponsoring a Weaving Wisdom Workshop.
Within the past four years, my two colleagues and I have expanded upon our program delivery modes to include more in-depth presentations, increased interactive discussions between parents and children, more variety in the hands-on activities offered, and the display of more cultural artifacts. We have held workshops in schools, libraries, other community spaces, and a unique summer camp program for elementary and high school students in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, in 2021.
SPECIAL PROGRAM RECOGNITION AND WEAVING WISDOM GRANT
In recognition of the program's value, Grace Hampton received a Generation2Generation Innovation Fellowship sponsored by the Encore Foundation. The grant supports practical visionaries with ambitious initiatives to bridge generational divides. Additional information about the recognition is in the following locations.
What People Say After WeavingWisdom Workshops
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We learn so much about Kente, Adinkra, quilted cloths, and the meanings of colors and symbols!
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— Family A
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We had so much fun working as a family together during the WeavingWisdom workshop, and we want to do it again.
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— Family B.
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I look at my family as more of a unit now.
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— Family C.
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We want our fabrics to express how we feel.
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— Family E.
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We enjoyed doing the workshop together. We will have future conversations with my sister.
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— Family H.
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I think sharing your culture’s heritage and values with others is the ultimate way to gain perspective and understanding, as well as building connections.
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— Family D.
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Weaving Wisdom workshop brought about strength and a sense of family identity.
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— Family F.
