The next exhibition at the Handwerker Gallery "Threads of Hope," is something off the map, considering the normal (yet awesome) student and local art shows. A display of hand sewn Chilean Arpilleras, the exhibition provides a strikingly immediate perspective of Chilean women during the military dictatorship in Chile.  Far from your grandma's blue-jean quilts, these arpilleras contain entire intricate hand-sewn scenes of life in Chile. With homemade fabric, designs, and concepts, it's definitely one of my favorite breeds of folk art.

Largely made to commemorate those relatives who were "disappeared" during the period of civil strife, the Arpilleras give an interesting look into the lives of the people who are often wrongly seen as passive and invisible in crises like these. (To quote Helen Reddy, "I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman.") These specific arpilleras come from the collection of Marjorie Agosín, a latina activist, author, and professor of Spanish at Wellesley.

The exhibit opens at 5:00 p.m. today. Hit it!