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Tea Conversation with a War Veteran | SFAC Workshop

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Saturday, March 4, 2017 - 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm | Cost: FREE
San Francisco Arts Commission | 401 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94102

Event Details

San Francisco Arts Commission Workshops

The San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries (SFAC Galleries) has organized a series of public programs in conversation with its current exhibition, Not Alone: Exploring Bonds Between and With Members of the Armed Forces.

All events are free and open to the public.

The exhibition features works by local and national artists and veteran artists that have been engaged with the subject matter of individuals supporting active-duty personnel and/or veterans over long periods of time.

The public programs follow a similar thread collaborating with artists and writers, many of whom are veterans, to foster conversation with veterans, artists, writers, and audience members.

2017 Schedule:

The first event brings together two renowned workshops, Combat Paper and Crochet Jam, into two interactive afternoons where participants can creatively transform donated military uniforms into handmade art objects.

The two-part program includes tutorials on dry process and wet process of making paper from uniforms. During both afternoons, lessons in single-stitch crochet will also be offered. While working, Iraq War Veteran Drew Cameron (Combat Paper) and Ramekon O’Arwisters (Crochet Jam) will lead discussions about life, trauma, and transformation.

  • Part 1: Saturday, January 28 @ 11 am-3 pm
    Combat Paper + Crochet Jam
    SFAC Community Room, Suite 125
  • Part 2: Saturday, February 4 @ 11 am-3 pm
    Combat Paper + Crochet Jam
    American Legion Trophy Room

In February, published, award-winning poet and Iraq War veteran Victor Inzunza has curated an afternoon of poetry written and read by veterans. Passion, fear, hope, and despair mingle in poems about war, friendship and deeply personal experiences.

  • Saturday, February 25 @ 2 pm–4 pm
    Veterans Poetry: Reading + Panel Discussion
    SFAC Community Room, Suite 125

In March, visitors are invited to sit, sip, and converse over a cup of tea with renowned artist, activist, and Iraq War veteran Aaron Hughes. Hughes’ TEA project opens a safe space to ask questions about one’s relationship to the world: a world filled with dehumanization, war, and destruction; a world filled with beauty, love, and humanity.

TEA is an ongoing dialogue that traverses a variety of landscapes—a Chicago sidewalk, a quaint coffee shop, a cage in Guantanamo Bay, or a motor pool in Iraq. Hughes says, “Tea is part of shared moments that transcend cultural divides and systems of oppression.”

  • Saturday, March 4 @ 3 pm–5 pm
    Aaron Hughes: TEA
    SFAC Main Gallery, Suite 126

Throughout the run of the exhibition, Berkeley-based artist and Gulf War veteran Ehren Tool will be in the gallery making ceramic cups on select Saturdays. By crafting cups with military-related imagery, Tool hopes to inspire honest conversations about war and trauma.

Visitors may bring in war or trauma-related images and small objects for Tool to incorporate into the cup designs. Veterans and family members of veterans are encouraged to bring personal objects and photos for Tool to copy and make molds from for custom cups.

Patrons may pick up custom cups, or cups made during the course of the exhibition on Saturday, March 18.

  • Select Saturdays
    Ehren Tool: Making Cups in the Gallery
    SFAC Main Gallery, Suite 126

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.


Cost: FREE
Categories: *Top Pick*, Lectures & Workshops
Address: 401 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94102