The Sleeping Bag Project

'The Sleeping Bag Project' and was started in 2009 and brought new significance to discarded sleeping bags remaining after a music festival in Leeds, West Yorkshire. A range of volunteers, students and practitioners adapted the salvaged sleeping bags in order to withstand their reuse in a homeless shelter, as well as bringing an aesthetic quality and cultural value to the recovered items. My initial involvement in 'The Sleeping Bag Project' emerged through my discussions with the writer and curator June Hill. After salvaging discarded sleeping bags from Leeds Music Festival we took some home to be washed and dried. Then I embroidered patterns onto the surfaces of wash-care labels that were created with the recipient in mind. These were inserted into the sleeping bags. The Sleeping Bag Project extended the gifting principle to other participants, who were prepared to give up their time to launder sleeping bags or sew a pocket into the lining of a sleeping bag. Thus, it placed participants in a creative role when adapting a salvaged sleeping bag for someone who may need it. 'The Sleeping Bag Project' was a collaboration with Juli Thompson, project co-ordinator, InnChurches and June Hill, writer/curator/volunteer.