Happy New Year! Hello 2021! Retail Therapy Guide 1/1/2021
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The Compass Arts Creativity Project recently created art kits for 72 Rombout Middle School and Sargent Elementary School students in Beacon, New York. The Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley provided funding for the packs, which included a journal with a variety of art supplies along with writing/drawing prompts curated by Compass Arts educators and community collaborators.
The kits are intended to give children the space and tools to connect with their voices and inspire creativity and self expression amidst the challenges of remote and hybrid learning.
Compass Arts partnered with Karen Pagano and the Beacon City Schools Food Services to distribute them alongside lunch pickup. This means that art kits arrived via school buses with food drop-offs.
The 2021 winter programming continues to prioritize access and inclusion. As we head into an uncertain winter, Compass Arts Creativity Project intends to create online program offerings to meet the community’s need for social connection, creativity, and self expression through the arts. The Saturday Arts Series will be a 10 week series of online arts workshops and performances held during the coldest days of winter, from January 16th - March 20th. With grants and donations, they expect to offer a tiered pricing structure, from Free to $25 per participant, allowing members of the community to benefit from the arts regardless of their ability to pay.
Compass Arts Creativity Project’s mission is to create healthy, just, equitable, and resilient communities through classes, performances, and events rooted in exploration, collaboration, creation, and play. Started in 2011 as a small business, Compass Arts became a non-profit corporation in 2019 and received its 501(c)(3) designation in fall 2020 in order to expand its offerings and amplify its impact.
To learn more about Compass Arts and unite with them in this vital work, you can join their end of year fundraising campaign launched on Giving Tuesday, December 1st, and donate at www.CompassArts.org/donate.
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Have you seen the the 36” x 80” crocheted V-O-T-E yarn bomb sign around Beacon? Since late September, Lynne Willis has been transporting this handmade crochet design to be seen throughout the city including Beahive in the Telephone Building, Beetle and Fred, and Endless Skein in Cold Spring. With early vote taking place through Sunday, November 1st, this is a nice reminder to do your civic duty.
You can catch the sign currently on display in the windows of Beacon Pantry, 328 Main Street in Beacon. The sign has already been featured on It has been featured on the design Instagram @dissent_by_design and on the front page of the Highlands Current.
Lynne has been a resident of Beacon for 3 years. Prior to this, she made regular weekend visits to the city and became acquainted and friendly with many of the local businesses and says she “was happy at the great response the sign got and the willingness to host in windows. Hopefully this is just one more reminder (that may bring a smile to your face) to vote.”
We all channel our anxiety and energy in different ways. Lynne found comfort and relaxation in the repetition of the crocheting. When speaking to creating her latest project, she says she “enjoyed the physicality of crocheting - feeling the yarn in my hands, the repetitious moving of the hook, and seeing the slow progress as each letter grew.”
With the election coming up, Lynne says “Knowing that this election is a vital opportunity for the people of our country to speak about what is TRULY important and bring about meaningful change; I wanted to do what I could in my own way.”
Crocheting has been a hobby of Lynne’s for years working on personal projects by the time the pandemic hit. She did make a pink pussy hat for the Women’s March in 2016 (yarnbombing hit Beacon for the first time in 2015) but stuck mostly to personal items and gifts. This changed back in March 2020 where Lynne explains, “Due to the pandemic, I was put on furlough back in March and suddenly found myself with lots of extra time. After sewing facemasks for friends and family, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself and my mounting anxiety about ALL the things going on in our country.” She was inspired to do more and be a part of something bigger and found mask making to be an opportunity to make a statement in public about science and safety.
Remember the crochet facemask mounted on the bust of George Washington earlier this year? That was Lynne’s handiwork, “It was very gratifying to have folks stop and admire the piece when I was installing it and to see images of my piece spread across social media including a shout out from the Daughters of the American Revolution. But, unfortunately it was taken down within three days.”
The VOTE sign was inspired by a Black Lives Matter crocheted yarn bomb by @nanostitches9. Lynne used the same basic method to make a small scale maquette to test yarn colors and process. “For the final sign, I scaled it up to 36” high and 20” wide for each letter. I wanted this large-scale for impact and decided to do each letter separately for ease of installation.” Lynne shares.
The lengthy crochet project gave Lynne something to focus on when feeling uptight and anxious about the current state of the world. Deciding how to design each letter using an excel spreadsheet mockup was a good design challenge, “After some trail and error, I sewed each letter onto polyester fabric and then stapled the fabric to the stretchers” she says.
Lynne’s boyfriend and professional photographer suggested mounting each letter on stretcher bars and getting local businesses to host the sign in their windows. This makes it easy to transport and allows for a variety of installation configurations. This also makes it easy to transport and to get a variety of pictures in different locations throughout Beacon.
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