Appropriation or Appreciation? Navigating Cultural Minefields in Crafts

Important conversations are happening around race, culture, and creativity.

Increasingly, modern makers find themselves asking whether using motifs, techniques, and materials significant to a culture other than their own is appropriate.

While many makers just want to make, awareness and sensitivity over cultural colonialism and appropriation continues to grow, especially recently as makers and vendors have publicly grappled with the mistakes of the past.

This lecture will guide you through the history and meaning of appropriation, and its relevance to makers. Melissa will help you shift your perspective to see through the lens of another culture, and understand why something one person may think is harmless could be hurtful to another. Then she will explore how to find inspiration while using best practices to spot, understand, and avoid appropriation in your own work.

About Melissa:

Melissa de Leon Mason is a modern quilt designer and maker inspired by the colors and experiences of growing up Latina in the borderlands. She has spent her career in social work and has lived all over the world with her husband and four kids and currently calls Logan, Utah home. Melissa’s quilts have hung at the National Quilt Museum, International Quilt Market, and QuiltCon, and have been featured in numerous quilting publications.

This event is pay-what-you-can with 100% of donations going to the facilitator.

About the How To Be A Good Human Series

This is a radical skill share series conceived and presented by Shannon Downey aka Badass Cross Stitch for folks who want to do more in service to a just world, but feel unsure where to start.

www.BadassCrossStitch.com