To bring Pitt’s community together to creatively advocate against climate change, the University of Pittsburgh has launched a campus chapter for the Climate Change Quilt Project, an artistic initiative designed to uplift community experiences with climate change and advocate for action. The inaugural quilting bee was held on February 10th to kick off Pitt’s commitment to make multiple quilts over the next year and a half. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved!
The Climate Change Quilt project started at Binghamton University through activist, professor, and Chief Sustainability Officer Pam Mischen. For inspiration, Mischen credits the AIDS Quilt project of the 1980s, a nationwide collaborative quilt created to raise awareness of, and honor lives lost to HIV / AIDS. Each of the 1,920 total panels of the 1.2 million square feet quilt represent someone lost and was carefully handcrafted in their memory. Mischen also credits “quilting bees,” or social gatherings designed around working on a quilt together, as inspiration to stimulate casual conversation about climate change (only 35% of American adults discuss climate change occasionally, even though 75% understand climate change is happening!).
Pitt Sustainability will continue to host quilting events throughout the year along with the Center for Creativity (C4C). Pitt’s C4C is a project partner, providing the bits and bobs to tie everything together— literally— after students design their panels. Unwanted clothing at Thriftsburgh (the student run thrift store) is disassembled and donated to the project. The Office of Sustainability for the Health Sciences is repurposing reclaimed lab coats to make a quilt focused on the health impacts of climate change. These textile donations also combat the effects of climate change brought on by textile waste; approximately 92 million tons of textile waste is generated globally each year, and to make things worse, textile production is credited with approximately 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, further making textile waste an issue of climate change. Each quilt panel is designed by community members, students, staff, and faculty interested in telling their climate change story.
Missed the first quilting bee? Not a problem! You can host your own quilting session by borrowing a quilting kit to uplift your own story through a panel that you design. Or if you like to sew, you can volunteer to help assemble the quilt – we need you! To get more involved contact Pitt Sustainability (sustainability@pitt.edu) Or, attend the EcoArtisans art show this April, where quilt squares will be on display. The quilts that the Pitt community makes will ultimately be part of a large-scale demonstration to raise awareness and advocate for change, just as the AIDS Quilt did.
Want to read more about Pitt’s involvement? Check out the Pitt News article reporting on the inaugural quilting bee.