// Downtown Naples Art Fair, Naples, Florida - January 2, 2005

Red State Craft Tour Dates:
Dec 31 - First Night Charleston, SC
Jan 1 - Downtown Naples Art Fair, Naples, FL
Jan 2 - Downtown Naples Art Fair, Naples, FL
Jan 4 - Fisherman's village Snowbird Show, Punta Gorda, FL
Jan 5 - Fisherman's village Snowbird Show, Punta Gorda, FL
Jan 6 - “No Snow Here” Seminole Mall Art Fair, Seminole, FL
Jan 7 - Daytona Country Art Fair, Daytona, FL
Jan 8 - Florida Manatee Festival Arts & Crafts Fair, Crystal River, FL

Red State Craft Tour
After the 2004 election, artists Jim Finn and Cat Mazza decided to tour with their political textile work at craft fairs in the so-called red states (those whose electoral-college representatives voted Republican in November). Jim is a film/video artist working on his first craft project, a series of needlepoint pillows called Communist Heroes of South America. Cat works with the collective microRevolt to make knitting and new media projects that educate the public about the sweatshop crisis. Speculative about the claim that blue-state people were out of touch with the red-state heart of America, we turned to our needlecraft heritage as a platform for talking politics with fellow craft hobbyists. The primary goal in organizing the Red State Craft Tour is to show work where it would be appreciated on the level of its craft while bringing political ideas that are often marginalized in the red state areas.