THE VIOLET PROTEST: Invigorating Creative “Upstanders” Based On Core Values

Friday, May 6, 2022

Featured Guest: Ann Morton

Arizona-based artist, educator, social practitioner – and orchestrator of this project, Ann Morton, offers a comprehensive visual review of The Violet Protest.

This has been a nation-wide public engagement that employed hand-made textiles as tools for protest against political divisiveness, and instead, generated a creative call for national unity. Thousands of makers from across all 50 states, DC and Canada contributed 8 x 8-inch squares using a variety of textile processes, and equal parts red and blue, to create their individual messages supporting the core values of the Violet Protest. The project goal was fulfilled by sending bundles of these individual squares to all members of the 117th US Congress in late 2021, as a unique demonstration of protest, and to voice our hopes and support for cooperation between lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Morton offers a behind-the-scenes look at the purpose, organization and realization of this overwhelming expression of citizens’ voices.

Participants also learned about the cohort of support that was instrumental in bringing this project to fruition. Beth Ames Swartz – 60 years as a practicing artist and researcher of wisdom systems around the world; Laura Roskind, long-time education and civic engagement advocate, serving on multiple school boards and community-based organizations including the board of Trustees for Arizona State University; and Susan Stander, 30 years as a problem solver and representative in the pharmaceutical industry – turned political activist. These three women have been UpStanders in their own lives and now have offered vital support for the Violet Protest.