The Great Octoshedopus Parade rolled through Takoma Park this morning! An excited pack of preschoolers helped fiber artist Stacy Cantrell move her 17-foot-tall crocheted octopus from the downtown clock tower to the playground shed at Takoma Children’s School. The City of Takoma Park commissioned Cantrell to create the colorful cephalopod called Oct O’Clock which lived on top of the clock tower for six months. The Takoma Children’s School submitted the winning video in the City’s Octo-Gone contest where contestants could say why they wanted the octopus and what they would call it. The preschoolers decided the octopus should live on top of their shed and be called Octoshedopus! It’s a mouthful but it has a nice ring to it.

The City of Takoma Park celebrates and supports the arts through public art projects like this one. We also host many arts and culture events at the Takoma Park Community Center, including art exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, poetry readings, concerts, and more. Info about upcoming events in the We Are Takoma cultural series can be found here and you can sign up for our weekly e-newsletter here.

Across the centuries in countries spanning the globe, women have been denigrated as the “weaker sex” and faced pervasive discrimination, but progress and history are being made as more women are elected to political office and sexual harassment is confronted.

Five international artists will explore the inspiring power of women and their struggles in Women of the World, a group exhibition at the Takoma Park Community Center with an opening reception on March 14 at 7 pm. The exhibition, which celebrates Women’s History Month, features work by Sobia Ahmad, Maysoon al Gburi, Olivia Tripp Morrow, Elayna Speight, and Evans Thorne.

Born and raised in Pakistan, Sobia Ahmad moved to the United States when she was 14 years old, becoming an immigrant straddling two vastly different cultures. Her video installations and mixed-media work grapple with the complexities of national identity, cultural memory, and notions of home.

Maysoon al Gburi lived through the brutality of war in Iraq before emigrating to the D.C. area. Her paintings are influenced by the richness of Mesopotamian history coupled with the dire outcomes of war suffered by women and children.

Olivia Tripp Morrow’s suspended installation titled Stretch reconfigures clothes donated by women into strips of intricately woven fabric layered over chicken wire. She reinterprets the personal histories associated with the clothing to reflect upon the contributions of women past and present.

Elayna Speight’s watercolors celebrate the strength, vulnerability, and magic of black women. Her series titled Her Crown and Glory portrays positive images of black women with their various skin tones and natural hair styles (their crowning glory).

After growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, Evans Thorne moved to the D.C. area to study art. His paintings explore his cultural roots in the Caribbean through nature, dancing, and family portraits of generations of women and girls.

For more information and high-res images, contact Arts Coordinator Brendan Smith at brendans@takomaparkmd.gov.

Artwork image: Tobago Jig by Evans Thorne 

The City of Takoma Park’s We Are Takoma arts and culture series needs YOU! We are seeking proposals for performances and lectures for our 2019-2020 schedule, as well as applications for a paid arts internship. There is more info about all of the opportunities at www.takomaparkmd.gov/arts.   

Performances and lectures are held in the state-of-the-art auditorium at the Takoma Park Community Center. Performances can include concerts, theater, dance, poetry, etc. Use your imagination because we’re open to new ideas. A $200-$300 honorarium and all audience donations are paid to the performers.The deadline for proposals is March 4, 2019. 

Monthly lectures are held on a wide variety of topics, and a $100 honorarium is paid to the lecturer. The deadline for proposals is March 4, 2019.

We also are seeking applications for a paid 12-month arts internship beginning in March 2019. The arts intern will work approximately 20 hours per week assisting with the We Are Takoma series. The deadline for applications is March 8, 2019.  

Takoma Park is more than 100 miles away from the Atlantic Ocean, but a 17-foot-long octopus somehow found its way here and wrapped its giant tentacles around the downtown clock tower.

In a public art project commissioned by the City of Takoma Park, fiber artist Stacy Cantrell crocheted the huge octopus in the City’s colors of orange, yellow, green, and blue. With help from her husband and a friend, she installed the creature recently on the clock tower in Ward Sinclair Plaza at the intersection of Laurel Avenue and Carroll Avenue. Then she watched the smiles and dropped jaws from surprised people walking by.

“I’ve always been in love with the ocean and sea creatures,” Cantrell says. “I also like crocheting things that are the exact opposite of what people would expect. People are used to seeing a crocheted afghan lying on their couch but not a humongous yarn octopus eating a clock tower.”

The installation titled Oct O’Clock will be on view for several months before the colorful cephalopod is donated to a local school or children’s organization. Cantrell used more than 120 pounds of yarn to create the deep-sea beast with some intricate details, including 360 crocheted suckers on its tentacles. The octopus is stuffed with more than 100 pounds of recycled plastic, including bags, water bottles, etc.

The City of Takoma Park also commissioned Cantrell to install two giant crocheted caterpillars in the City’s colors on a fence at 7676 New Hampshire Avenue south of University Boulevard. One 80-foot-long caterpillar and its 65-foot-long friend are climbing down a hill past a bus stop in the installation titled Scoochin’ Down the Avenue, Two by Two!

After that installation is removed in a few months, Cantrell will wash and disassemble the pieces to make baby blankets that will be donated to local organizations serving families in need.

“I love bringing these creatures to life, but I also want to reuse these materials to help others,” she says.

The City of Takoma Park commissioned the fiber installations as part of its commitment to support and promote the arts, including public art that can inspire or surprise people in their daily lives without visiting a museum or art gallery.

“Stacy’s work is so delightful. It really exceeded all of our expectations,” says Sara Anne Daines, director of the City’s Housing and Community Development Department.

Cantrell learned how to crochet when she was 4 years old and has displayed her work at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Arlington Arts Center, Torpedo Factory, and other locales.

“It’s been great working in Takoma Park where there’s a real love for the arts and a willingness to take some chances,” she says.

All photos by Sam Kittner        

How can a seemingly powerless public triumph over tyranny? The people of Burkina Faso showed how it’s done when they rose up in massive street protests in 2014 to overthrow a dictator who ruled the West African country for 27 years. The City of Takoma Park’s We Are Takoma cultural series will highlight that neglected story in a free screening of Burkinabè Rising: The Art of Resistance in Burkina Faso, a new documentary from Cultures of Resistance Films. The screening will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday, May 3, at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue.

Burkina Faso is home to a vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens who showed how political change can be achieved when people come together. Dance, music, visual arts, and citizen journalists are highlighted in this compelling film.

After the screening, there will be a panel discussion with Barthelemy Bazemo, a policy analyst with the Africa Faith & Justice Network who grew up in Burkina Faso, and Paul Sankara, the brother of former Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara who was assassinated in a 1987 coup. Kerry Danner of Georgetown University will facilitate the discussion and a Q&A with the audience.

Donations will be collected to benefit an orphanage in Burkina Faso that is featured in the film. You can check out our Facebook event  and watch the trailer. We hope you’ll join us Thursday night.