How to Start Your Own Satellite Reef

Thank you for your interest in the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef (HCCR) project. The Institute For Figuring is delighted that you are considering starting a local Satellite Reef.

Constance Tomich and Cindy White, contributors to the Indiana State Women's Prison Reef.

The IFF appreciates the enthusiasm and curiosity of the many people worldwide who learn of the project and want to participate. As of early 2011 the HCCR involves thousands of crafters working on Satellite Reefs around the world from New York and London and Melbourne, Cape Town, Latvia and Croatia. The success of these local Reefs are the combined result of the large support network that has been cultivated by the IFF since the start of the project in 2005 along with the resourcefulness of local organizers and participants.

The most important resource the IFF offers Satellite Reef organizers is affiliation with, and inclusion in, the global HCCR community and the network we have cultivated. This web of people and information has emerged from more than five years of research and development on the part of the IFF connecting mathematics, marine biology, ecology and community art practice. Each Satellite Reef is made possible by, and builds upon, this ongoing body of work. As a potential facilitator of a Satellite Reef you would be tapping into this network and drawing on the intellectual history of the project as well as building on the work of the thousands of people who have come before you.

The contextualization of your Satellite Reef within the larger HCCR community is paramount to its strength, and to the integrity of the project as a whole. You, as organizer, will serve as the liason between your Reef and the IFF. You will be responsible for ensuring that this overall framing is clearly visible and understood by your participants and by any institutions who may exhibit your Reef.

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef (HCCR) project is the product of years of research and intellectual development on the part of IFF directors Margaret and Christine Wertheim. Their efforts have created the nexus of maths, handicrafts, community art, feminism, and science that is itself the Reef project. While hyperbolic crochet is something to be learned and employed freely, the aforementioned nexus that combines many different worlds and disciplines in a community project is a product of the IFF's innovations in public education.

The Institute For Figuring is a non-profit educational organization based in Los Angeles that does public programming and exhibitions at the intersection of the sciences and the arts. The science communication aspect of the project is the intellectual property of Margaret Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring. There are fees for using this material in community and institutional programming. The IFF determines this fee based on the size and scope of the proposed Reef and associated programming. Generally the fee falls between $3,000 and $5,000 (U.S.). This fee increases if you wish to have IFF-run workshops and lectures for your community. We require that organizers partner with a hosting institution, who will commit to exhibiting the Reef and who have the resources to cover intellectual property usage fees and long-term storage of your Reef. This hosting institution may be a cultural center, a museum, a college or a school.

Please contact Anna Mayer, Assistant Director of the IFF, at anna@theiff.org for more information. We very much appreciate your interest and look forward to welcoming you if you decide to become part of the HCCR network that has joined together so many talented crafters around the world.