Science & the Arts at CUNY Graduate Center

The Institute For Figuring is an organization dedicated to “the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics and the technical arts.”

The IFF has organized a world-wide crew of volunteer needleworkers to crochet a simulated coral reef, to draw attention to the reefs’ threatened status.  2008 is the international year of coral reefs. The IFF writes:

 “This past week the New York Times ran a lovely article about the project in a lead-up to the exhibitions we’ll be having in New York City. We are pleased to announce there will be two exhibitions of the Crochet Reef in New York, both opening Saturday, April 5th 2008. The shows are being hosted by the New York Institute of the Humanities.

- One exhibition will be at NYU’s “Broadway Windows” space - a series of large old department store windows at the corner of Broadway and 10th St.

The other will be at the Winter Gardens at the World Financial Center in Battery Park City, again, in a huge windowed display space. Both exhibitions will look like giant aquariums. We are also pleased to announce that the Crochet Reef will be showing in London at the Hayward Gallery over the summer (June 6 - August 18.) More information about these exhibitions will be coming as they open. In the meantime crafters have been unleashed across New York and London to create their own “sister city” reefs. We are delighted to have the support here of the New York Crochet Guild, Harlem Knitting Circle, the UK Craft Council and the Norton Family Foundation. Much new information and many gorgeous new photos of the reef and its amazing contributors are now available on the IFF website.”