Putting the Pieces Together: A Community Tablecloth for Camden

Putting the Pieces Together: A Community Tablecloth for Camden unfolded in collaboration with the City of Camden, NJ in a Creative Placemaking project grant. The project had multiple components, and took over a year to complete.

The overarching goal was to collaboratively construct the Longest Tablecloth in America, to be placed on a 100-foot-long table for a large community meal held in a public park. I first developed it during a Summer Math Enrichment program for local Camden 6th graders, and together, we used math and geometry to lay out the starter quilt design. After the program ended, I took equipment around the neighborhood as a pop-up mobile sewing station, utilizing telephone poles with electric outlets to plug in a sewing machine and set up a basic studio for passersby to engage by sewing a quilt square. By the end of the summer, we had our 100-foot-long tablecloth.

During the process I would ask each person about what they imagine the tablecloth should become, once the project ended. So many projects wind up stored in basements or closets for much longer than they were shown, and I wanted this one to carry on within the neighborhood, becoming something new. I heard many ideas, but my favorites included: “pants for a stiltwalker”, “flags for vacant lots”, and “tablecloths distributed between community groups”.

The culminating dinner was catered by students from a local culinary school; everyone enjoyed chili at the long table, and voted for the fate of the tablecloth! “Flags” won out, and the following spring, a group of ladies from the local senior center turned them into flags which subsequently adorned several vacant outdoor spaces. April 2013 - September 2014.