The African Dream Chair serves as inspiration for a similar fiber arts chair launching in Cook County in 2026. Photo provided

By Sammie Garrity - Boreal Community Media - November 17, 2025

In 2023, Cheryl Larsen visited Cape Town, South Africa, excited to learn about the country’s rich history and culture, but what she found while traveling was far more unexpected. Larsen and travel partners made a stop at “Truth to Power,” the Desmond Tutu and the Churches in the Struggle Against Apartheid permanent exhibition. There, she connected with an educator who was dedicated to teaching youth about the lingering effects and history of Apartheid. 

As they conversed further, he decided to show her something restricted from the general public. In the private part of the museum, Larsen said she “stood before a magnificent mosaic of seed bead story imagery covering the entire span of a chair with wings.” The chair told a tale of the artist’s dreams for themselves and their family’s future.

The African Dream Chair is crafted by beadworkers who are patients at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s Woza Moya craft hub. Many of these patients lost their financially bread-winning partner to HIV/Aids and now use craftwork as an income source and a path towards regaining dignity and agency. For many, life was full of hardship, and their “dreams for the future” often fell by the wayside. 

This chair project aimed to change that, with each crafter invited to “bead their dreams” and share with not only their families, but their country, and now the world. A seemingly unimportant, discarded chair that was fished from a dumpster became a shared canvas for their futures. 

“The Chair became a metaphor for second chances, and every piece, and every person was necessary to create this,” Larsen said. 

This African Dream Chair became far more than a creative outlet. Its legacy traveled across the globe, functioning as a metaphor for new beginnings, and allowing strangers to stop to ask questions and share their own stories and hopes. Larsen was handed a copy of Dreams for Africa Chair, a book depicting this journey, carrying its message home to Minnesota, and now to Cook County. 

Months later, Larsen presented on the intersection of art and social justice at North House Folk School and spoke about the book, the Dream Chair, and the profound impact it has on so many lives. In the audience that day was a local artist and community organizer, Marlys Johnson. She was intrigued by the chair and approached Larsen, sharing that she wanted to bring the same principle to Cook County, a project centered on connection and hope. 

For Johnson, the idea of the chair resonating with a community and its history drew her in. She recalled her involvement with the felted forest in the ISD 166 woods, where individuals created felt animals and flowers and installed them alongside public trails.

The felted forest art was meant to be a community-building exercise, but its legacy brought people more joy for over two years. Then, in 2024, society entered an era in which many communities felt divided and struggled to find common ground on a range of issues, according to Johnson. 

“This has been a year of great turmoil in our country, and we are all struggling to find ways to come together,” she said. 

To help create a bridge, Johnson started The Cook County Chair of Hope, which invites community members to create a small fiber art piece that expresses a personal hope or desire. These individual submissions will be melded together and cover a chair recycled from Oddz and Endz. The idea is that at the end, the chair will be a deeply personal and highly colorful piece where people can “have a seat”, “rest a bit”, and contemplate.

Johnson chose fiber arts as the artistic medium because of a neurological proclivity. She said that the brain is highly intertwined with hand function because handwork stimulates learning and regulates emotions. Fiber art acts as a form of meditation and informs the brain, which allows for a reciprocal conversation between the mind and the body. 

“When artists start working with material, the material answers back…in the making and in the sitting, the various tactile opportunities have the potential to stimulate thoughts, memories, and feelings,” said Johnson

This sensorial variety of textures, colors, and forms helps transport hopes and dreams from a mere idea to a tangible product that can not only be felt but also embodied. 

Artists who want to contribute to the project are encouraged to journal their creative process as they work. Their reflections and creative journeys will accompany the chair as it travels, adding another layer of meaning. 

“It provides another way to connect with each other,” said Johnson

The chair will be transported and used practically, so artists should make their product durable and within the size requirements. Even with these guidelines, the project allows for immense creativity and free rein. 

“We really wanted to keep it open enough for people to be creative, but also have some limits. Ultimately, we gave boundaries in square inches, without asking for squares.”

As the chair gets assembled, Johnson will document the collaborative challenge. Once complete, it will make its first appearance at the Northwoods Fiber Guild Show at the Johnson Heritage Post in February 2026. This also coincides with Fiber Week at North House Folk School, and from then on, the chair will travel across Cook County. 

As it moves, Johnson wants people to view the chair like a mirror; one that reveals what people fear, dream, and value. Hopefully, it will invite unexpected conversations between strangers, just like it did that day in South Africa. A journal will travel with the chair in Cook County, to encourage others to share their hopes and reflections. 

In an uncertain, divisive culture, this project is a complex but straightforward way to invite people to connect, breathe, and imagine a better, stronger future.

What do you hope for? Kindness? Gratitude? Empathy? Truthtelling? “We, the people”? Equality? Courage? Clean Water? Pollinators? Healthy planet????? 

Whatever your hope, think about how you could illustrate that hope in your chosen fiber art process (felt, beadwork, weaving, embroidery, knitting, crochet, kumihimo, etc). If you are beading or felting, please leave a border around your piece. 

There are 1,840 square inches of fabric to cover. As you consider what you will create, limit the size of your work to 4, 16, or 36 square inches of any height and width. (As you build your contribution to this project, keep in mind durability for use.)