The Visible Mending Circle at Cherrydale Library in Arlington, Virginia is an ongoing weekly gathering where participants repair their garments while engaging in guided conversations about resilience, hope, belonging, and lived experience. More than a workshop, the circle has become a space for cultivating relationships, exchanging skills and stories, and strengthening community through shared acts of care.
Many participants go on to become volunteer “Mend-tors,” helping facilitate mending events at museums, universities, libraries, and nonprofit organizations throughout the Washington, DC region, extending the project’s impact well beyond the circle itself.
We ask “magical questions” to foster curiosity and share stories. Recent magical questions include:
- What was something that scared you but you still did?
- Where did you grow up and what was it like?
- What is something that made you get outside your comfort zone or feel like a badass, or ahem, rather brave, daring, or cool?
- What is on your bucket list?
Every two weeks, we have open lab where participants can bring anything to mend and we have featured artists that show off their art and share their techniques.
What Our Hosting Partner Says:
“People show up to their first mending circle with a very specific purpose, like fix this rip; they come to their second circle because of how Alison makes them feel: welcome, accepted, and IMPORTANT.
She is the unique mentor who can demonstrate practical skills while also being attuned to the human anxieties and needs around her. It is her genius insight that giving us something tactile and useful to do with our hands and eyes frees our ears, mouths, and minds to engage the strangers around us.
She breaks the ice by inviting everyone to introduce themselves along with the item they’ve brought to mend, and potentially an open-ended question that generates curiosity and recognition. As a session goes on, she opens conversation to someone who has been quietly working away (“What about you, …? Have you ever …?”), or asks another to hold up and show the progress they’ve made.
She creates opportunities for members to teach one another (“Would you show … Scotch darning? That might work well on her sweater.” “You know who is an expert in felting gloves, is … Just ask him.”)
And by the end of the session, the circle has become a team, cheering for one another’s success.”
-Charlotte Malerich, Library Associate and Library Lead for the Circle
Dates: July 2025 to present
Art on the Mend 