THE RAINY DAY DONATION PROJECT
THE RAINY DAY DONATION PROJECT
Instructor: Ruth Marshall, artist
Students: The Golden Ladies
When the pandemic shut everything down, all our lives were changed overnight. The members of RAIN Inc. Senior Center at Boston Secor in Baychester, Bronx were told that their center was closed until further notice. The center focused on priorities such as food deliveries and the medical needs of their members - no more parties, socializing, no programming. The crochet group that Ruth Marshall had been teaching since 2016 could no longer meet. Knitting and crocheting were put aside for the time being.
Over the next several months, Ruth Marshall received text messages from her students inquiring, ‘when is our class restarting?’. And then Zoom classes began. For older adults navigating Zoom was daunting, confusing, too difficult, many of the students were not able to return to class. But slowly a small group formed, and Ruth quickly realized that the class had to adapt to this new type of classroom. She suggested the idea of a special project and asked her students to decide what they wanted to do. And so, The Golden Ladies: Rainy Day Donation Project was created. The ladies were very specific that they wanted to help create beautiful items for babies in need in Bronx hospitals. Toys, blankets, dresses, hats, cardigans, booties, and more starting flying off their crochet hooks. Ruth created a password protected resource page on her website to organize the patterns and information for everyone to access. Every step of the way the Golden Ladies decided on the name, what they wanted to make, they even read this paragraph and provided feedback!
This exhibition is giving a face to the matriarchs of our community who are the tireless providers of love and generosity not only to their families but to other families who they will never meet, simply because they want to do something to help.
The Golden Ladies have generously donated over 100 items to Montefiore Medical Center’s NICUs.
PARTICIPANTS:
Members of The Golden Ladies: Rainy Day Donation Project:
Located at RAIN Inc. at Boston Secor Senior Center
Ruth Marshall, artist
Rebecca Gittens
Liz Hunter
Cecile Walker
Phoebe Ogbuehi
Sandra George - Etsy store ‘Just for Little Folk’
Ethel Kennedy
Martha Cruz
Kenisha Forbes - Etsy store ‘Kenishas Craft’
Staff at Boston Secor Senior Center:
Denise Abney - Program Director
Joluisa Martinez - Progam Coordinator
Carol Coote - Administrative Assistant
Frank Ayala – Driver
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Australian born and raised, from 1993 Artist Ruth Marshall has resided in the United States and is a naturalized citizen. She has been a Bronx resident since the year 2000, moving to the borough to work as an exhibit sculptor at the Bronx Zoo for 14 years until 2009. She is a dedicated teacher of knitting and crochet to the older adult community, a fiber artist of community art programs and installations partnering with local Bronx organizations, and an instructor of drawing for the Animation Department at the School of Visual Arts.
"My artwork explores the creative possibility of textiles through crochet and knitting, with an emphasis on bringing these crafts to a fine art level of excellence. Through my investigations of the expressive qualities of yarn, I am interested in constructing dialogues that are accessible to a wide audience. Yarn has a benign aspect and a history of domestic utility but has the ability to demonstrate connections to socio-political contexts.”
https://ruthmarshall.com/