| Barbara Parmet had a vision of wing. In a time in which minorities in America are keeping their heads down, she would build a 35 foot long, white, billowing, symbol of flight and freedom made of fabric and metal in the shape of a wing, and she would with work minority groups to project images on it. It would bring people together. It would literally raise their faces up. But if this vision was ever going to become reality, she needed space, she needed time, and she needed partners. She found all three at the Community Arts Workshop.
“The CAW space has been fantastic for me,” said Barbara. “It is big enough, high enough, and the light is fantastic in here for working. I needed this space to work with a 35-foot wing, and you have 45 feet in length, and enough height to get it up.” According to Barbara, she couldn’t have built the wing anywhere else in Santa Barbara.
But the physical space was just the start. Barbara spent a lot of time looking for partners in the community, with Latinos, with the Chumash, with the LGBTQ community, with mixed success. As a stranger with an experimental idea, many groups were uncertain how to work with her. And then she started work at the CAW, and serendipity began to step in. Barbara spent hours each day in her CAW workspace sewing and assembling the Wing, and as she worked, other groups also renting the CAW came through. She would strike up conversations, and standing in the room with her looking up at the wing, visitors would get inspired. They would make suggestions, give connections.
“The Squire Foundation had a workshop, and there were people working all weekend and I just kept sewing and sewing and at one point a woman came over and said ‘I think I can help you with your project.’ And I was like, ‘great!’ And it turned out, Gloria Liggett is this wonderful connection to many different parts of the community, to Casa de la Raza, to the Chumash nation, that I was trying to connect with for the Wing Project.”
She met a young Latino muralist that agreed to work with her; the curator for the Office of Arts & Culture walked in off the street and offered her an opportunity to take the Wing to Guadalupe. “The Wing Project has been just phenomenally connected to the community as they come in [to the CAW] doing other projects. I’ve been meeting people in the community to work on a community project. I’m just tremendously grateful.” |
