Join us Tuesday, December 7, at 7PM, for a workshop and craft circle to crochet hyperbolic 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. Your corals will be assembled together to form the Saratoga Springs Satellite Reef, which will be exhibited at the Museum as part of Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science, opening in early 2022.

Hosted by Associate Curator Rebecca McNamara, this program introduces the Saratoga Springs Satellite Reef and includes a virtual craft circle. Instructors will lead beginners in the single crochet stitch, which is all you need to make your very own coral! We will also learn from one another about our experiences with fiber craft, underwater corals, and other topics.

If you’re ready to crochet, bring yarn and a crochet hook, or come to learn more about the project. 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.

Open to everyone, and all skill levels welcome!

Download the Institute For Figuring’s brochure How to Crochet Hyperbolic Corals.

Register via Zoom.

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. Anyone is welcome to visit the museum and pick up free yarn.

Corals submissions are due on Saturday, January 15! The Tang will be closed December 20–January 2, but we are happy to accept submissions by mail during that time. The building will be open January 3–15, Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm, for in-person drop-offs.

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.

About the Instructors

Lucy Beizer is a fiber artist whose work focuses on nature, memory, nostalgia and conservation. She often incorporates found and reused objects into her fiber pieces, as well as natural dyes, scrap yarns and fabrics, and original illustrations. Lucy lives and works in NYC and spends her time creating new pieces as well as working as a textile arts instructor and artist’s assistant.

Victoria Manganiello is a textile artist and educator working primarily with weaving, dying, spinning, and e-textiles. She has exhibited her paintings, installations, and kinetic sculptures internationally and throughout the USA. She is adjunct faculty at NYU and Parsons in New York City, where she is based.