Skip to main content

Tania Rich, Crochet Activist

June is Pride Month; and Tania Rich has been busy crocheting hours and hours to  enhance the atmosphere at the NEON District of Norfolk, Virginia.  Her love of crochet got her involved in public art projects that highlight women and the LBGTQ Community. She wanted to add a little more love and color to the NEON District near where she lives. Due to lack of trees-lined streets, she lent her creativity to the light poles.



Neon District, Norfolk, Virginia

Tania also contributed a 24" x 24" square to a 40 foot mural of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, D. C. as a part of Love Across the USA.

Tania Rich and her square for the Harris Mural

Led by well-known street artist, London Kaye, Love Across the USA was founded by Olek in 2017. London explains, "We create large, poweful crochet art installations that amplify the voices and visions of women from the past and present that are changing the world. Women are no longer just participants in conversations, we are leading them."

Learning to crochet: love across the usa

"This is amazing!"

As I was researching Rich's contributions to the Kamala Harris mural, I saw this photo of Susan Sullivan, a Past President of the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA). Talk about "connection"! #susansullivan

Susan Sullivan

"Tania is committed to being part of projects and events that involve more of community in creating art, learning crochet, and connecting again." Her dedication and promotion of crochet is very much appreciated by this writer!

Adapted from "Virginia Beach Woman Crochets Color and Love into Norfolk's NEON District for Pride Month" by Saleen Martin. The Virginian-Pilot, June 14, 2021.





Comments

Choppi.no said…
I need to thank you for this wonderful read!! I certainly loved every bit of it.
crochet cat collar

Popular posts from this blog

Craft vs. Fine Art: How is Crochet Blurring the Lines

I was awakening to the world of crochet in 1972,a time of immense artistic expression through fiber arts; and crochet was not the “ugly stepchild” at the time. In fact, Ferne Cone Gellar who I admire as a successful fiber artist said in “Knitting: The Stepchild of the Fiber Arts?” ( Fibercraft Newsletter 1978), “Has knitting been slighted among the areas of the fiber arts? The very word ‘knitting’ evokes images of the little old lady in tennis shoes. Over the years, I’ve learned to ignore all those jokes.” Cone Gellar went on to publish Crazy Crocheting in 1981 and encouraged her readers to create more than bedspreads, providing ideas such as “things to play with or to display on a shelf or hang on a wall.” A photo of single crochet from bread wrappers served as inspiration.  In 1972 in her book, Creating Art from Fibers & Fabrics , Dona Meilach wrote: “Why are fibers and fabrics becoming increasingly appealing to artists? Most artists agree

Wartime Crochet With Attitude, Part I

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Karen Ballard and I have a mutual love of free form crochet. We met for the first time in a class taught by Prudence Mapstone of Australia at the Chain Link Crochet Conference 2011. I admire Karen's vast knowledge of needle work history and am grateful for her willingness to share with us as my guest blogger this week. Karen wearing a World War II-era knitting hat with stubby needles on top Karen's Heritage Heart,  with flowers symbolic of her heritage, is currently on tour with Prudence Mapstone's traveling "Hearts & Flowers Exhibition" in Australia and New Zealand   World War 1 Attitudes About Crochet by Karen Ballard In 2008, I coined that term, "Workbasket Campaigns" to describe the organized efforts during World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII) coordinated through the American Red Cross {ARC} and the Navy League to create needle crafted items.  These items were mostly knitted but also sewn, qu

What is Free Form Crochet?

Monday, January 6, 2014 This topic came about from the title of my article recently in Fiber Art Now magazine.  "Crochet As Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists." Yes, the 5 artists I wrote about, all of which are in  my book  The Fine Art of Crochet , are free-thinking when it comes to their creativity. They are free-wheeling with the hook and use unique fibers in many cases. Once you read the article, tell me what  you think? Are these artists doing free-form crochet? In order to define free-form crochet, we must look way, way back to it's origins: Irish crochet. A brief history of crochet, including the Irish method, written by Ruthie Marks is available through The Crochet Guild of America . Unfortunately, there are no images on the site. On her blog, Nancy Nehring has a beautiful montage of Irish Crochet in reference to a class she taught in 2013 at Lacis . I wrote an article in Old Time Crochet Magazine (Spring 1998), "History of Irish Croc