Erin Sweeney — Sculpture and Community Based Project

I Want to be Evelyn Kok When I Grow Up — Dyed Tyvek and Mixed Media — *I Want to be Evelyn Kok When I Grow Up* — Dyed Tyvek and Mixed Media

Quilted — Custom binding; Dyed and Quilted Tyvek, One-Needle Coptic Binding — *Quilted* — Custom binding; Dyed and Quilted Tyvek, One-Needle Coptic Binding

Community Based Project:

The Art Table/Curbside Crafts

The Art Table/Curbside Crafts In Peterborough, NH!

I started the Art Table in April after my teaching job went remote because of Covid 19, and I was providing childcare and home school help for my niece and nephew. My response was to create kits and supplies that people could access easily. I wanted my niece and nephew to learn about community service as part of their schooling, so we set up a table outside my studio and got to work. Ella and Winthrop continue to help make kits! My hope is to grow the project, collaborate with more local groups and artist friends, and eventually develop curriculum, particularly around themes of social justice and anti-racism.

My project allows anyone to come get a kit, or some supplies, and figure out a new way to make, or to discover a new way to solve a problem. “Craft, in all its forms, demonstrates creativity, ingenuity, and practical intelligence.” I talk about problem solving constantly with my students. Even with me not being there with the people making these kits at this time, people are engaged! As opportunities to make are limited for many of my neighbors and community members, I want to continue to provide ways to support the ingenuity. Approximately 500 items were taken from April to October.

Community Collaboration:

The outpouring of support for this project started right away with people reaching out about dropping supplies off for us to use. From our first bag of Mason Jar lids to the box of cigar boxes dropped on my porch this morning, we have made a project from everything we have received and are so grateful to all who continue to support us!

The Art Table gets ready to move to the Peterborough Town Library!

In October of 2020, I contacted our local library to see if there was a potential to collaborate—to have people check out a book along with their kit! Since moving the table to their location on October 20, we have given away 885 kits, 40 coloring sheets, 65 make-your-own-cards, 90 rolls of paper and 200 make-your-own zines! We LOVE working with them and are so thankful!

Potential for growth:

As the project continues, we will be adding a Table in Keene in the next months, and hope to continue to create ways to get kits to people. We have had our first visting artist kit made by artist Shyla Hazen and will have more in the future! At this time, I’ve made kits for teachers at the elementary and college level, and would like to grow the kits into a monthly subscription program as well. We hope to create short videos to go along with the kits, and to create other materials that can accompany the kits that don’t require internet access.

Tiny Stories, How I Feel About Fall — Paper and Yarn — *Tiny Stories, How I Feel About Fall* — Paper and Yarn

Erin Sweeney lives and works in southern New Hampshire. She received her MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she was awarded the Elizabeth C. Roberts Prize for Graduate Book Arts. She also has a BFA in Sculpture from the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine.

Sweeney exhibits nationally, most recently at the Putnam Gallery at the Dublin School in Dublin, New Hampshire, Unrequited Leisure in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery at Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire. In July of 2019, Sweeney was awarded a Ruth and James Ewing Award for Excellence in the Arts, and in 2020 was honored to be a juror.

Additionally, Sweeney is an instructor, teaching book arts workshops at her Lovely in the Home Press. She also travels to teach workshops at many locales, including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cló Ceardlann in Donegal, Ireland, and the Philadelphia Center for the Book. She is a member of the NH State Council on the Arts’ Artist Roster.