Coral Reef Project

Maine to create a crocheted coral reef with the help of The West Oxford Agricultural Society

Latvian reef

The West Oxford Agricultural Society, presenter of the Fryeburg Fair, has recently partnered with the Institute For Figuring (IFF) to participate in their internationally known Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project. Crafters, artists, artisans and students will create THE MAINE REEF, a Satellite of the worldwide Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project created by Margaret & Christine Wertheim of The Institute For Figuring, Los Angeles which will be shown at The Fiber Center during the 2012 Fryeburg Fair. Everyone is invited to participate.

Maine joins the countries of Africa, Australia, The UK, Ireland, and Latvia who have created Satellites as well as Arizona, Chicago, Gainesville, Indiana and New York in the U.S. The IFF’s own Crochet Reef collection was most recently exhibited at the Smithsonian for six months ending on April 24th of this year.

The MAINE REEF project in simple terms is a Fiber Art installation that will be made up of hundreds, maybe thousands of hyperbolic coral forms and other reef related elements created by crocheting or other fiber art forms such as felting or knitting. However it goes way beyond that!

This project does provide a statewide opportunity to bring together the many people who crochet and practice fiber arts simply for the fun of it, but it also presents an educational opportunity for schools and Institutions of higher learning by offering the nexus of math and science along with community art, and feminism. Add to that, awareness of marine conservation and research efforts within our state as well as Canada, and it is easy to see the potential scope of this project!

It brings me the greatest pleasure to be organizing a project that has potential to do so much!

Here are some of those things:

• For Maine to be a part of an international educational art project
• To bring an amazingly beautiful Fiber Art exhibit to the people of Maine
• To encourage and build community by participation in creating and displaying the reef
• To create opportunities for teaching artists to teach workshops
• To create opportunities for people to learn a new hobby
• To offer children a venue for creating fiber art that will be displayed at the fair
• To increase awareness in the people of Maine that we are not immune to the issues affecting the health of coral reefs around the world
• To increase awareness of Maine College and University research efforts regarding the health of our Maine waters and how it can potentially affect local shellfish and our economy
• To connect universities and colleges throughout the state with the IFF and the message it shares about the connection of math, science, art and ecology
• To share our accomplishments and progress on the internet with the world
• To have fun!

For more information, contact me about the project, or to learn how you or your students can participate or help please visit our blog at http://themainereef.blogspot.com/

Gale Bellew

Project organizer – The Maine Reef