Craftivist Collective

The Craftivist Collective's efforts have been deemed 'guerrilla crafting',[4] as their projects often involve leaving crafted messages in public places. Their projects are often small-scale, intended to bring viewers closer to the work.[2] There are lists of projects to do and video tutorials online.[19] They run talks, workshops, stalls and exhibitions and sell Craftivist Collective kits and merchandise.[4]

The 'collective' is a loose term that encompasses anyone who gets involved.[16] The group particularly seeks to engage people who haven't previously had much involvement or interest in civic engagement. For many members the group is a stepping stone to more traditional activist methods.[20] Corbett calls it 'slow activism'[18] and 'introverted activism', saying "it's not about performance and vying for attention, it's about offering people the choice to engage".[21]

The groups hold regular meetings.[22][23] Other groups such as Women's Institutes and schools have also been involved in projects.[24] The collective is self-funded and receives donated materials from supporters.[21]

A self-proclaimed 'burnt-out activist' who disliked the image of the aggressive activist, but wanted to do something to change the world,[17] Sarah Corbett was involved in activism while growing up in Liverpool and then studying at the University of Manchester.[4] She worked for traditional charities for seven years.[11] It was after moving to London for a job in 2007[6] and joining various activist groups that she started getting increasingly into her hobby of cross-stitch, finding that it helped with stress.

She didn't feel like she fit into any of the activist groups she joined in London.[2] She had been cross-stitching as a hobby since the age of 18 and in August 2008[16] had the 'light bulb' idea to combine the two.[4]

Corbett set up the Lonely Craftivist blog in 2008[4] and began receiving comments and emails from people around the world asking to join in. She held a first meeting[2] and got in touch with sociologist Betsy Greer who coined the word 'craftivism' in 2003.[25] Greer encouraged[19] Corbett to found and coordinate a national group called Craftivist Collective.[4] In 2012, Corbett went part-time at her Oxfam job to devote more time to the collective,[3] and in October 2012 she gave up her job to work full-time for Craftivist Collective.[25]

The collective's work employs craft to speak to broader issues. In 2010 and 2011, the group left 'samplers' around London Fashion Week Sites with cross-stitched statistics on the low wages of laborers making the clothes that high-paid fashion models wore on the runway.[26] Sarah Corbett encourages people to send cross-stitched messages to politicians, arguing that they are more memorable than an email or a petition.[27] In 2015, Corbett and the Craftivist Collective researched the members of the board for Marks & Spencer, a retail company that failed to pay its employees livable wages.[28] The group presented cross-stitched gifts to M&S board members, encouraging the company to pay 50,000 of their staff members fairly. Ten months later, the company made significant changes to their wages; Corbett said that the board took her side and that it was "the most powerful campaign they'd witnessed."[29]

The group have worked with Christian Aid, One World Week,[30] Oxfam,[5][31] Save the Children,[32] People & Planet, Toms Shoes,[33] Bystander Revolution,[34] UNICEF,[35] and War on Want.[13]

They have run workshops at the Greenbelt festival, Hayward Gallery, NUS Student Conference, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Secret Cinema, Secret Garden Party, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Southbank Centre, Tate Britain, UCL, Victoria and Albert Museum/Coats,[36] Wilderness Festival and the Women's Library.[21][6][31][20][24]

The group’s work has been exhibited at the Bluecoat gallery in Liverpool,[30] the People's History Museum,[25] St Fagans museum in Cardiff,[37] and the Ulster Hall, Belfast.[38] The collective supports Fine Cell Work, a social enterprise that trains prisoners in needlework.[39][40]

Sarah Corbett has given talks about the Craftivist Collective at the British Museum,[41] Sunday Wise, TedX Brixton,[42] and the Wigtown Book Festival. She has been a guest lecturer at Parsons The New School for Design and Leeds College of Art.

A Little Book of Craftivism by Sarah Corbett was published in Autumn 2013 by Cicada Publishing, distributed by Thames & Hudson. This was followed by How To Be A Craftivist in October 2017.[43]

The collective was featured on Al Jazeera in September 2013[44] and on the Canal+ television show Nouveaux Explorateurs: Megalopolis, broadcast in France in November 2011.[45][46]

• Official website
• A Lonely Craftivist blog