The fabric of social justice

As part of the Sonoma Juneteenth Celebration, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA) will participate in The Remembrance Project by the Social Justice Sewing Academy 

The powerful textile panels are on view, free with museum admission, through June 19. 

The Social Justice Sewing Academy’s Remembrance Project is a community art project that creates textile panels for local and national organizations to publicly display in solidarity with social justice and remembrance of those lost to violence. 

Youth participants provide a name of a person in the United States whose life has been lost to violence and are paired with volunteer fabric artists.  Once paired, the maker researches their subject and creates a textile display honoring the life they lived.  

The Remembrance Project panels travel all over the country to help educate and inform communities about the human impact of systemic violence. The SJSA will ship 40 panels for installation in Sonoma. 

Panels from the SJSA collection will also be displayed at Sonoma Valley Regional Library and Sonoma Community Center. 

A community event takes place Saturday, June 18, 2022, from 5pm to 7pm at the Sonoma Community Center. See the schedule of activities including a Sewing Academy workshop, film screening, and artist here: https://sonomacommunitycenter.org/juneteenth/. 

Founded in 2017, the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) is a non-profit organization that aims to empower individuals to utilize textile art for personal transformation, community cohesion, and to begin the journey toward becoming an agent of social change. Through a series of hands-on workshops in schools, prisons, and community centers across the country, SJSA uses social justice and art education to bridge artistic expression with activism. 

The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is located at 551 Broadway. Hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. General admission is $10, free for SVMA members and 18 and under. svma.org. Wednesday is always free.