View the Storycloth Database
The Storycloth Database, a project headed by Lise Raye Garlock, CTP’s Director of Education and Art Therapy, houses information on collections of narrative textiles relating to human rights. Some collections are private, others are owned by organizations and universities. The Database is designed to grow and become a resource for anyone interested in stories made in cloth that portray human struggles — historical and contemporary, personal and universal — and how people use sewing images to convey important events.
Washington Post Article on Common Threads Project
Some trauma really is unspeakable. So these women are sewing their stories, instead.
Read Webster Geneva’s article on the Fabric of Healing Exhibition
On 26th June 2020, to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Common Threads Project launched a 3D exhibition of story cloths made by survivors of SGBV in conflict situations.
Watch the video project that started it all
Over a decade ago, psychotherapist Rachel Cohen created a video project documenting the cross-cultural practice of sewing unspeakable traumas into cloth. This video was the seed that grew into Common Threads Project, an international not-for-profit.
conferences and papers
Cohen, Rachel & Butterly, Catherine. The Fabric of Healing, EuropeNow (2020).
Cohen, Rachel. Common Threads: A Recovery Programme for Survivors of Gender Based Violence, Intervention (2013).
Garlock, Lisa. Stories in the Cloth: Art Therapy and Narrative Textiles, Journal of the American Art Therapy Association (2016).
The Courage to Fight Violence Against Women: March 2016, Washington D.C.
Paper presented at the SVRI Forum 2015: Innovation and Intersections
A full day workshop on Common Threads Project at American Art Therapy Association annual meeting 2016