By Dustin Staggs

A dynamic and tightly connected group has knitted itself into the very fabric of the Fayetteville community—the ‘Crochetiville’ group. Beyond a mere gathering of creative minds, this eclectic assembly of crochet artists has transformed Fayetteville into a vibrant canvas of color and yarn.

Fayetteville has long been a hub for artists of various mediums, and the rising crochet scene is no exception.

Gina Gallina, the creative force behind Crochetiville, has been a driving influence in the crochet art scene, first in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and now in Fayetteville. Gallina’s vision is to challenge traditional perceptions of crochet and bring it into the contemporary art spotlight.

“Crochet’s been going on since the 1800s, when they would do tablecloths, curtains and collars.” Gallina said. “Back then, you made stuff; you just didn’t go to Walmart and buy it; you had to make it. In the 60s, as civil rights and things were changing, that’s when it changed over to the crochet you see today, like the granny squares and that traditional crochet look.”

Gallina said she doesn’t want people to think of crocheting as an old lady’s hobby because it’s more than that.

“I’m an artist first, and crocheting is my medium,” Gallina said.

Gallina comes from a Sicilian family and initially learned crocheting from her grandma. However, it wasn’t until after she moved to Texas in 2007 and her home’s power went out that she finally pulled her crochet hook from its retirement in her pencil holder, gradually picking up the past time. Then, while traveling eight hours a day as a two-person band called “The Camptown Ladies,” Gallina said she started to enjoy crocheting once again. 

Gallina said she used crocheting to find some much-needed inner peace during a period of her life before deciding she would make art out of it.

When moving to Fayetteville and starting to plan her projects, Gallina said, “I wanted to meet the local crocheters. It’s so important to connect with your community who’s doing the same thing as you and show them, like, ‘hey, together, one stitch at a time, we can do something wild and crazy, like yarn-bomb Maxine’s.’”

Aside from Gallina’s skilled hands, the group offers a dynamic ensemble of six outstanding individuals, each lending their own artistic approach to the creative team: Ali Di Mero, Amber-Winger Smith, Kim Dodd, Randi Sparks and Tracy Johnson.

Wanting to create large-scale crochet art projects with the team, Gallina faced the most challenging part of her endeavor: finding space.

“Nobody’s doing an outside crochet art display,” Gallina said. That’s precisely what Gallina did: she took her art outside, where there was more space for her to create. One of the Crochetiville creations is the “Humongous Fungus,” a gigantic crocheted mushroom with a central archway for guests to stroll through and encircled by little crochet flowers. This project sat at the beginning of 2023 at Turnbow Park in Springdale, Arkansas. From April to October, it rooted itself at the Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios.

Crochetiville’s recent graffiti project spans several locations, such as Xuma Kitchens, Maxine’s Tap Room, Arsagas and in the trees near the Razorback Greenway, with each piece having a unique quality to align with the location.

In August, newcomer crochet artist Amber-Winger Smith put together a tapestry to hang at Ozark Natural Foods Co-op. The crafted art piece reads, “Keeping it Local,” with local being an acronym that makes out, “Lettuce thank you okras the years. You carob out NWA. That’s anise thing. Lima glad you’re you.”

Smith is a friend of Gallina’s, who didn’t know how to crochet at first when Gallina approached her to help with decorating trees in Eureka Springs. It was Gallina’s tutorial video on how to make granny squares that helped her learn. “It opened a whole new world of options,” Smith said.

Occasionally making sweaters for kids or putting together fanny packs, Smith didn’t really work on any other art ventures until Gallina approached her with the graffiti project. After pitching the idea to other businesses that were interested, Gallina asked Smith to create her piece for Ozark Natural Foods.

Smith and her husband collaborated on the tapestry, and he assisted her in coming up with the inventive acronym since he is a “word-smith,” as Smith puts it. 

“He has that brain for words. He was quick, and he was like, ‘Oh, this is kind of hokey, but what do you think?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I think that’s perfect.’ And so that’s how that came to be,” Smith said.

Randi Sparks, a ceramics and sculpture art teacher, put together the group’s final masterpiece, which was displayed at Pearl’s Books. The crocheted sign that still hangs outside their window is inspired by one of Sparks’ personal favorite books, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas.

“The quote on there is about creativity and making sure that you’re using your time to do the things that you love and not feeling bad about it,” Sparks said. “That was just a message that I really wanted to portray to other people.”

With a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in ceramics and studio art, Sparks says she actively sought opportunities to incorporate crochet into her ceramic work. Recently, Sparks said she’s been making more nature-themed ceramic pieces, like creating logs and sticks out of porcelain and then crocheting bioluminescent mushrooms out of glow in the dark yarn.

The “Court of Thorns and Roses” inspired piece, which is nature-themed itself with roses and long vines that adorn it, will be moved soon to another library in Madison County. Like most of the pieces these artists create, their work always finds a new home and is never disposed of. A crocheted caterpillar that once held wine glasses with its tiny little hands at the Walton Arts Center for the Art of Wine fundraiser, now it will be holding books and joining a piece at the Fayetteville Public Library. 

Gallina invited any NWA crocheters to join her at the library on Dec. 2 to learn how to create tiny crochet books to be used for the project.      

As the Crochetiville group continues to stay in touch and make plans for the future, the artists envision expanding the reach of crochet art, inspiring community involvement, and leaving a lasting impact. Sparks eloquently states, “Crochet and yarn are not something you expect to see. So it also kind of forces you to take note of it and maybe look at a shop that you wouldn’t have looked at before or didn’t know was there.”

Gina Gallina said she hopes that their art inspires others to see the beauty in the unexpected and know that anything can be art. Amber-Winger Smith extends an invitation to those interested, saying, “Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask to join the group and come play. Cause we’re a pretty fun group of people. I would say so.”

In the ever-evolving scale of Crochetiville, each stitch tells a story, weaving together a community that celebrates creativity, challenges norms, and leaves an indelible mark on the artistic landscape of Fayetteville.