The Collective Mending Sessions is a series of socially engaged workshops led by artist Catherine Reinhart, centered on collectively mending abandoned quilts. This project cultivates care for cloth and community through the meditative process of slow stitching. Since 2018, Reinhart has led over 50 workshops both in-person and online, repairing ten quilts with hundreds of participants from around the world.
These workshops resemble a quilting bee where participants learn basic mending and textile care, while building community in a warm, inclusive environment. They cultivate care for cloth and community through mending together and discussions centered around the value of repair. The resulting quilts are transformed from unwanted textile objects into contemporary fiber artworks through the work of many hands, moving toward a more egalitarian model of work. Shared alongside the workshop is an extensive library of resources, ranging from instructional texts on mending to textile history to cultural and craft theory.
Workshop duration is three hours. All materials are provided. Participants of all skill levels are welcome.
Learn more about the project: www.collectivemendingsessions.com & IG: @collectivemendingsessions
Artist Statement – Catherine Reinhart
I am an interdisciplinary artist who makes fiber art and conducts socially engaged projects with abandoned textiles. These works center on the themes of domestic labor, connection and care. Caregiving girds up our society and is based largely on the undervalued labor of women. Tending to one’s family and community is built on consistent, repetitive actions which provide comfort, ease suffering, and connect us with our fellow man.
Mending and stitching by hand parallel these tending actions. By using them, I join the emerging discourse on the unseen contributions of women. Through the reuse of found textiles and ritualistic processes, I communicate the transformative power of caregiving.
Recently, my social practice work relies on the communal actions of mending together. With my work, I contribute to relevant and timely discussions reframing the value of care and connection to our neighbors and our possessions. I give voice and hold space for stories of repair, loss, and kinship.