We are coming off another successful Crafternoon event, so I wanted to tell a story here about the past and future of this flagship event for Not Ladylike.
OUR FOUNDING STORY
Technically, Crafternoon got its start when a bunch of friends came to sit around my kitchen table for Art Night back in 2019.
Fast forward through a difficult transition online during covid. Crafternoon emerged from the ashes of Art Night after I got burnt out from hosting virtual gatherings, and meeting in person was starting to feel safer and achievable.
I asked the hall manager at Ritchie Community League if I could rent their space on a Sunday afternoon, and she replied “why don’t you run this as a Ritchie event?”
I had a wee bit of support from her and the rest of the Comms Team, and a great plan thanks to my (ridonkulous) attention to detail. Without an idea in the world about attendance, we hosted around 20 people back in February 2023.
And we’ve been going steady ever since.
WHY WE LOVE CRAFTERNOON!
Here are some testimonials from actual Crafters!
“Crafternoon is a great low-stakes way to meet new people! Everyone is focused on their craft, which makes striking up a conversation less daunting! There’s a welcoming, easygoing atmosphere, and I always have a great time!”
“I love Crafternoon! Such a special time to enjoy crafts, hang out in my community, and make new friends! I can’t recommend it enough!”
“The best thing for me is being in the company of other creatives. We’re so much alike, it’s automatic relaxation.”
“Great opportunity to get to know your neighbours.”
This feedback hits on many of the reasons why I love Crafternoon, and why I think out of all the NLL events it has true staying power:
- Sometimes, people need help carving out time for their hobbies, and some external accountability to align their time with their values.
- Crafting brings folks together not only in a shared interest, but in sharing a belief that crafting is important.
- It’s a low stakes way for people to be around other people, meet new people, foster a community.
WHY CRAFTERNOON?
Perhaps you have heard about the “loneliness epidemic” that is sweeping our communities. Whether or not you belief it’s true or have experienced it first hand, there are real factors in everyone’s lives that are keeping us apart, alone, and divided (and sad). Which one of these resonates with you?
- Infrastructure the enables social life is shrinking, becoming too expensive, and increasingly difficult for everyone to access.
- Technology and “social” apps encourage us to stay isolated and solve our problems by buying things.
- We have gone beyond simply accepting introversion to making it a badge of honour (to the extreme). Introversion/extroversion is not as black and white as we make it out to be, and the actual definitions differ from how we talk about it–if we talk about it–and do little to support the needs of either group.
- We work too much and we glorify being “busy”.
- We are increasingly polarized, blaming our neighbours for our personal and societal problems and finding it difficult to see (and act on) our commonalities.
- People aren’t joining clubs and associations as much as their parents did.
- Humans are social animals, resolving conflict and taking care of each other by being together.
- Our politics continues to propose individualized solutions for our societal problems, prizing individualism over connection.
- We are missing some key resources to be able to take time to play, practice, and come together.
Some folks do prefer to be alone, and that’s cool! But we are taking that to the extreme across the board and that’s where the trouble lies. Now that we’ve gotten into the (bad) habit and structured our lives and society this way, how do we turn it around?
We need to offer a lot of different imperfect opportunities to gather, to meet each other, to be in community and in conversation, to resist the pull of the alternative.
This is what Not Ladylike is all about…plus I like to craft so it seemed like an easy place to start!
GOALS FOR THE FUTURE
Crafternoon has been a core event with Ritchie Community League for over 2 years, and we are entering our third with simple, achievable goals.
- Host them more frequently and on a set schedule so people know what (when) to expect.
- Improve our communication and promotion within the community and with our neighbours.
- Explore different ways to increase accessibility and meet the varied and lovely needs of attendees. You might be asking yourself “sounds fun, but how am I supposed to find time to do this?!” We want to help you answer, “what resources do I need to support my capacity to come to Crafternoon?” and then work on getting you those resources
- Get other people involved in the planning and execution of these events.
Crafternoon plays into one of my biggest Big Ideas: a permanent drop-in location for crafting. While I don’t have plans to make that a reality this year, you never know what might happen!
RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING
The Perils of Social Atrophy (The Ideas letter)
Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam
Join or Die (documentary)
Not Ladylike Community 