CLITERACY!

Cliteracy is project of “The Cliterates,” a collective of California-based artists, to serve as a practice of creativity and tool for the reclamation and celebration of our bodies. Building on the history of feminism, Cliteracy pushes social practice into new territory through the re-emergence of Stich’n’Bitch feminist fibre collectives/groups. We create an inclusive, safe and explorative space for participants to create new visual work that contributes to and amplifies a critical conversation about gender, beauty, equity, discrimination, violence, reclamation and celebration, while contributing to a movement through practice that is joyful, connected, community-based and empowered through the arts.

Hey Baby: Art Against Sexual Violence
Conference on Gender-Based Violence, Tucson, AZ  •   November 2017

Imagining America 2017 National Conference — publicly engaged artists, designers, scholars, and community activists working toward the democratic transformation of higher education and civic life
Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, CA  •   October 2017

Cliteracy! Fembroidery Nights
Sacramento and Davis, CA, September-October 2017

Nasty Women Exhibition Oakland
Omi Gallery, Oakland, CA  •  April 2017

The Cliterates are a close-knit collaborative of artists glenda drew, Alyssa Goldsmith, Julia Boorinakis Harper, Belinda Huang, Naomi Acuña Pryor, Ariel Robbins and Sinead Santich.

Alicia Decker is currently pursuing her MFA in Design at UC Davis. Alicia has been working with a needle and thread in the fashion industry for the last 10 years. A lover of all things fabric, print, pattern, color, visual communication cause her to constantly explore the possibilities of her fiber-based designs. She also has a strong passion for social justice, animal rights, and community building. Alicia hopes to empower people and communities through her work, one thread at a time.

glenda drew is a maker whose projects are at the intersections of visual culture and social change. She is inspired by the possibilities technologies generate and she works with a combination of “hi-tech” and “lo-tech” tools. Her work was featured by Bitch! magazine.

Alyssa Goldsmith is a costume designer living in the bay area who has worked on films, music videos, and theater productions such as the feminist film Carnal Orient. She was a founding member of the all girl punk band Period Bomb, and is passionate about art, social activism and Beyonce.

Julia Boorinakis Harper is a graphic artist and multimedia maker. She works internationally with artists and musicians on record album art, audio production, and music videos, and runs an independent record label, BEEHIVE. Julia finds analog yin to the digital yang of her professional work in metalworking, radio broadcasting, and helping run her family’s fourth-generation fruit ranch. Her work can be seen at juliavbh.com.

Belinda Huang is a recent graduate from UC Davis and for the few months after March, will be a funemployed visual designer. She is interested in topics relating to race, sex, mental health, and a lot of other things that don’t really stay within any border. Her favorite pen tip is 0.38mm.

Naomi Acuña Pryor is a full-time student and single mother. Studying design at UC Davis, she is emphasising in fashion with an approach that addresses issues of social, economic, and environmental justice. She believes that blending design and activism is a strong vehicle for change.

Ariel Robbins, former child, is now a fourth-year Technocultural Studies student set to graduate from UC Davis this spring. Ariel’s work centers around film in which she’s made everything from a documentary about Irish women to a love story about a girl named Mittens who glues her fingers together. Her film “Kissing” won both the Audience Choice and Best Comedy awards at the 2016 Davis Film Festival.

Sinead Santich is a third year Cinema and Digital Media student, with a minor in Plant Sciences. Sinead enjoys to make documentary films about social change, and wants to create media which inspires viewers to protect the environment, and the beings which live in it. Sinead has worked on numerous film projects, and edited the trailer for the 2016 Davis Feminist Film Festival.

Cliterates, Associates Bios:

Robin Hill is and artist whose work focuses on the intersection between drawing, photography, and sculpture. Her large scale installations capture wayward moments of beauty while extending the life of the sculptural components she uses to generate photographic images in cyanotype. She is on the Studio Art faculty of the University of California at Davis.