The Clothesline Project

We’re excited to announce a project that will involve students, staff, faculty, and the community to raise awareness of violence against women and to honor its victims and survivors. The Clothesline Project was begun in Massachusetts in 1990 as a way of memorializing the thousands of women who have suffered from domestic violence, as well as a vehicle for education about this important issue. For two weeks of March, we will be hosting a display of t-shirts in a variety of campus locations. Each t-shirt hung from the clothesline is a woman’s story; survivors, families, and friends are invited to decorate a t-shirt to add to the display.

You need not be an artist to create a moving, personal tribute. Whether you use paint, markers, or sew elaborate embroidery is entirely up to you. Any remembrance is appropriate (artwork, lines of poetry, etc.) so long as you refrain from using the full name of an abuser, or of a survivor who hasn’t given her permission. T-shirts and art supplies will be available from the Women’s Studies Resource Center after the beginning of February: we will be organizing some group creation bees during the week that includes Valentine’s Day.

How you can help:

1. Stop by the WSRC and decorate a shirt for yourself or someone you love. Or make your own at home, and bring it in to the WSRC. Or join us at a bee in mid-February!
2. Tell someone else about the project.
3. Volunteer to help hang the project on a certain day, or to sit with the display for an hour or two.
4. Sort through your closets and bring us some old, clean t-shirts, preferably as plain as possible, but of any color you like.
5. Bring us any leftover art supplies: fabric paint, markers, glitter, glue, transfers, etc.
6. Come and see the display, March 12-23. Venues TBA.