This is Rose Sinclair's presentation which was due to be presented at the Craft Economies: Inequalities, Opportunities and Interventions Conference on December 4th. Rose discusses her work on Black women's textile practices and the concept of 'empathic activism'.

1. The Charity of Craft:
Empathic Activism
Rose Sinclair:
Department of Design, Goldsmiths, University of Design
r.sinclair@gold.ac.uk
@dorcasstories
‘

2. 2011
2018
The changing landscape of crafting crossing
boundaries and spaces

3. The growing space of Fandom as a space of subculture
that can also become a space of resistance,
‘located in a culture of creative, feminist
and political practices in the textiles arts’
(Cherry 14:2016.)

4. Greek - Empathy = Einfulung - German ( in-feeling /vicarious sensation)
• 18th century seen as a period of ‘weeping for others’ ‘moral weeping’
• 18th century philosophers called Sympathy (care for fellow being)
• Inbuilt sympathy/empathy to counteract rising tide of selfishness in society
• 18th century interest in sympathy = benevolence (social affection) =philanthropy
• Empathy – deep interconnectedness, recognition of the other ‘interbeing (Thomas 2011)
• Today within design & policy ‘Empathy’ seen as a universal solvent
Focussing on Empathy

5. • researching
• Observing
• interviewing
Gathering
evidence
• To feel
• Walk in others
shoes
• ‘primary research’
Experiencing
directly • Building empathy
• Gaining insight
• Insider perspective
Prototyping
experience
Researcher to Participant : Empathy
Adapted from Suri 2000, 2003: Communicating with Designers: The Role of Empathy, Evidence and
Inspiration. IEA 2000/HFES 2000 Congress. Available at: http://iea2000.hfes.org

6. Activism
Policy or Action utilising vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change
(form of resistance)
Craftivism – merging of ‘craft’ and ‘activism’ (Betsy Greer 2005)
making a political choice, making/resistance not to purchase crafted goods,
but to make your own, revisit the pleasures of craft , heritage (Gauntlett 2011)
‘adding a revolutionary dimension’
Through the act of crafting are we ‘gifting’ (Kopytoff & Appadurai 1986)
• (Craft)Activists can belong to social/environmental/political/communal groups
• ICT/Social media platforms/internet ( Greer 2005, Fuad -Luke 2009, Gauntlett 2011,2018,
Cherry 2016, Mayne 2018), mean they can be localised, distributed, collectives, individuals
• In Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook (2016) Kyra, E Hicks, the black
voice is almost non-existent in the crafting space. So online creates its own space.

7. Who or What is Dorcas?
‘ A women’s circle making clothing for charitable purposes. So called
from Dorcas in Acts 9: 39, who made ‘coats and garments for widows’
Dorcas Society.( 2012). S Dent ( Ed), Brewers dictionary of phrase and
fable
‘A Christian charitable society for women with the aim of providing
clothes for the poor?’
Harper Collins Dictionary 2014
‘A church ladies association which made clothes for the poor’
The Companion to British History. C. Arnold Baker (2001), Routledge
But what does Acts 9v36-42 - actually say? They talk of her life, love of
textiles, empathy for others, her death, how she was loved, and raised
from the dead.

8. “… as part of maternal culture, the mother’s meeting was justified,
and ennobled by scripture. As in their other charitable activities,
philanthropic women scoured the Bible for references that would
testify to their claims for a wider role in missionary work and social
reform. Dorcas, a woman who made garments for the poor ( Acts
11v36), gave her name to countless Dorcas meetings in the
nineteenth century, which supplied clothing to missionary
stations…so inspired were they let flow their maternal missionary
zeal which they called love they broke out of their own domestic
routine to extend those domestic Christian influences to less
privileged women”
Prochaska.F Christianity & Social Service in Modern Britain: P102;2006:

9. Victorian feminists struggled to escape the construction of women as
belonging in the private sphere, and one means through which they did this
was to become engaged in work which they could argue had a social function
that utilised the organizing skills and caring qualities they were believed to
have acquired through managing the home. Many early feminists therefore
turned to philanthropy as a means of improving society, extending their
knowledge and skills, and aiding the poor…
…..Unsurprisingly for such a large city, women's involvement in philanthropy in
Bristol was diverse. Members attached to particular churches or chapels,
particularly among Congregationalists and Unitarians, branched out into
philanthropic work such as Dorcas Societies (which loaned blankets and
material out to nursing mothers, and occasionally provided for surgeons to
attend in extreme cases
http://humanities.uwe.ac.uk/bhr/Main/women_routes/4_philanthropy.htm

10. The Times, May 1849 The Times Nov 1898

11. The Jamaican Federation of Women, Annual Meeting :
The Gleaner, June 1958

12. 12
Evening Times,
Glasgow, September
2006
Established 1863 from a philosophy of one
woman’s vision (Beatrice Glugson)
of empathy with crafting cloth
The ongoing empathy of a
Dorcas Society group in 21st Century
Still going in 2019

13. WMB ( Women’s Missionary Band) March Brighton July 1984
Dorcas - through the Black led church movement

14. (WMB) Dorcas Club literature. (1990’s UK)
Black led church literature to support textile
network
Sew & Craft and …………..
• Sewing
• Basketmaking
• Weaving
• Baking
• Group work (at church)
• Work from home ( on group project)
• Utilise your Talents ( gifts)

15. The Farmers Weekly – Jamaica, June 1958
The 4H Clubs started in 1936, St Catherine Jamaica
(passing on/survival of rural skills
2016 – Woven basket Kingston, Jamaica, made by women in
local Methodist church to support localised communities

16. Knit & Stitch Oct 2013– Dorcas Stories Sewing: Give it Back? Can you give one hour free to make for charity
In one day 40 participants attended a workshop to give up an hour of time to make a garment for charity
and not take the garment home. They took home experience of making and instructions to remake.

17. Empathic Activism
Empathy
(Looking beyond the
self / looking at the
experience of the
other)
Craft
(Craft moves from
the self to making
as communal
practice, to make
for the other)
Activism
(Political/social
change)
Embodies an holistic
approach to others, crossing
boundaries in all forms
The use of
empathy to
align with
craft in all
forms
Identifying
political/social/communal
alignment, through
resistance

18. In what ways can Empathy allow us as makers /crafters/designers to position/reposition :
• Gain a wider understanding of the wider World
• Develop approaches to Action Research /Action Learning through discovery
• Development of curiosity of making and making with others through creative exploration
• Create expressions of personal lived experience through ideas
• Co-Collaboration/Co-creation with others/participants in creative tasks
• Using creativity as one of the tools to reflect personal beliefs/values
• A move towards developing an awareness and respect for diversity/inclusivity,
• developing an informed understanding of cultures which can be reflected through creative practice

19. 19
"Throughout history, cloth has furthered the
organization of social and political life….cloth helps social
groups to reproduce themselves, and to achieve
autonomy or advantage in interaction with
others…equally important are the human actions that
make cloth politically and socially salient….people use
cloth to consolidate social relations and mobilise
political power”.
(Weiner and Schneider, 1988:1 Cloth and the Human Experience,)

20. Rose Sinclair r.sinclair@gold.ac.uk
Twitter: @dorcasstories
Department of Design
Goldsmiths, University of London,UK
Any questions
Thankyou