Join us on Saturday, November 20, at 2PM, for an in-person craft circle as we create corals for the Saratoga Springs Satellite Reef, part of the worldwide Crochet Coral Reef project by Christine and Margaret Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring. Bring your own materials and your WIPs (works in progress) or start something new.

Corals submitted to the Museum will be assembled together to form the Saratoga Springs Satellite Reef, which will be exhibited as part of Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science, opening in January 2022. This event is open to all, and all skill levels—including those looking to learn crochet for the first time—are welcome!

What you need: If you’re a savvy fiber crafter, use whatever’s in your stash! If you’re a beginner, we recommend medium-weight (4) yarn and a 5.5mm (or I/9) crochet hook. Crochet kits are available for Skidmore students to pick up at the Tang Museum Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, and during our open hours while supplies last.

About the Crochet Coral Reef

The Crochet Coral Reef is project created by sisters Christine Wertheim and Margaret Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring. Residing at the intersection of mathematics, marine biology, handicraft, and community art practice, the project responds to the environmental crisis of global warming and the escalating problem of oceanic plastic trash by highlighting not only the damage humans do to earth’s ecology, but also our power for positive action. The Wertheims’ Crochet Coral Reef collection has been exhibited worldwide, including at the 2019 Venice Biennale, Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Hayward Gallery (London), Science Gallery (Dublin), and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC). The project also encompasses a community-art program in which more than 10,000 people around the world have participated in making more than 40 locally based Satellite Reefs—in New York, Chicago, Melbourne, Ireland, Latvia, UAE, and elsewhere. The Saratoga Springs Satellite Reef is the latest addition to this ever-evolving wooly archipelago.

About the Artists

Margaret Wertheim is a science writer, artist, and author of books on the cultural history of physics. Christine Wertheim is an experimental poet, performer, artist, and writer, and a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts. Margaret and Christine conduct the Crochet Coral Reef project through their Los Angeles–based practice, the Institute For Figuring, which is dedicated to “the poetic dimensions of science and mathematics.” The IFF is at once an art endeavor and a framework for innovative public science engagement.