Helping Handles: Tote Bags 4 Refugee Fundraiser is a series of tote bags made by Chicago artists to raise funds to get activated cell phones for asylum seekers arriving in Chicago.
Tote bags go for $28 - or you can donate your old phone in exchange for a tote bag of your choice!
Inspired by arts community mobilization efforts like the
Bootlegs 4 Brandon project, Buddy has assembled 14 amazing artists to donate their artwork, which we’ve printed on bags that we’re releasing Aug 25. meet the urgent needs of assylum seekers involuntarily bussed to our city. Help us help our new neighbors get oriented, communicate with family and friends, and thrive with us in our welcoming communities.
Public Media Institute is working to get these newly-arriving refugees working phones with SIM cards. This is something our mutual aid buddies across the city have unanimously let us know there is urgent need for; other nonprofits and community groups are working to get asylum seekers’ basic needs met, but no one is helping people get the phones essential to find work, communicate with loved ones, and navigate complicated government aid.
Dimensions: 14.5 x 15.5"
Materials: Screenprint on 6 oz, 100% cotton canvas tote
Seiya Abe-Bell
(Pilsen)
Seiya Abe-Bell is an artist/designer who seeks to draw lines of connection between natural and manufactured worlds. Through functional creative reuse, embedded with natural materials and imagery. He makes handbound sketchbooks, wearables, and sculptures. His work has culminated in the upcycle brand, Hyphae, in which he hopes to bring this mode of making to the forefront of his and others' lives.
Hyphae: many cells of small tube like structures that explore, fuse, and tangle together forming mycelium and its fruiting bodies - mushrooms.
@hy._.phae (Instagram)
Bear Wood Editions
(Irving Park)
Operated by Logan Woodbury, Bear Wood Editions is a queer-owned, Chicago-based silkscreen printing service for handmade art and apparel. For more, follow @bearwoodeditions on instagram.
