ArtWorks! gives Custom House Square a whole new look with 'yarn bombing'

New Bedford, you've been "yarn bombed!"

What's yarn bombing?

Do a Google Image search

"ƒ"ƒ"ƒ"ƒ"‚for "Yarn bombing." Your mind will be blown.

Or, you could just head downtown to Custom House Square or the ArtWorks! building at 384 Acushnet Avenue and see for yourself.

Yarn bombing — aka guerrilla knitting, urban knitting or graffiti knitting — is like fiber graffiti. It's public street-art with knitted or crocheted yarn instead of spray paint or chalk.

Fiber artists, or people who just love to knit, create colorful installations in unexpected places — often sterile areas like the sides of buildings, parking garages, a bike rack or parking meter, etc.

The word "graffiti" gets a bad rap — people tend to associate it with swear words scrawled on a bench, or damage to public property.

But you only have Google Bansky or Shepard Fairey to see what being a true graffiti artist means — it means creating a public display of art, and getting people to look at something ordinary in a way that maybe they never had before.

It means — as ArtWorks! has done here — involving more than 70 professional artists, elementary school students and passionate knitters to come together to create something temporary, but beautiful.

The project, which went up on Thursday for AHA! Night (Art, History, Architecture!), was coordinated by ArtWorks! and students from the Fiber Department of the UMass Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts.

And while yarn bombing is sometimes done as a guerilla art, this installation was done with the city's permission — they're allowed to keep their pieces up for two weeks.

"We were inspired by the fact that there are a number of things going on this month for AHA! with fiber artists," said Noelle Foye, director of ArtWorks! "We thought it would be fun to have some kind of community event, so yarn bombing fit the bill."

Foye put out a call inviting people in the community to contribute knitted or crocheted pieces of fabric — any size, any shape and color. More than 70 people donated more than 250 square feet of fabric — from "3 by 3" to 4 feet by 4 feet, in dozens of shapes and colors.

"The response was amazing," she said. "The donations were coming in in bags; I was being buried in my office.

"We had elementary school kids from (the John B.) DeValle School; we had UMass Dartmouth art students; we had someone's 93-year-old mother contribute. I had a woman who emailed me from Staten Island; her parents live in Wareham and they read about the call for donations, and she wanted to send something. One lady brought squares for an afghan she never got a chance to put together."

Gig Lang, the wife of former New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang, contributed to the project:

"I have a knitting group that knits for kids and seniors, and, like every other knitter, I have so much yarn left over," Lang said. "I knitted a large granny square with variegated and fuzzy yarn. It was so much fun."

Judy Roderiques, a seasonal park ranger with the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park of New Bedford, said the patch-work art of all different colors and sizes exemplified the "diverse and united people of New Bedford."

"I'm not an artist but I see art as being an expression of people's soul," she said. "Community art projects reflect the soul of the community. It says that we believe New Bedford is worthy of beauty and effort."

ArtWorks! and fiber students from the UMD Star Store campus have worked to piece it all together to cover the fountain at Custom House Square, and to cover the ArtWorks! building itself, by hanging panels from the third and second floor and covering the front of building on street level.

"I want people to be surprised and delighted. I want it to be one of those unexpected happy things that they come across in the city," Foye said.

The project is up for the two-week duration, rain or shine.

"That's part of being an outdoor art installation — it's out there in the elements. It will be interesting to see what it looks like with snow on it," Foye said, quickly adding, "but personally, I hope we don't see that."

Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. Contact her at ldaley33@gmail.com