Colgate University’s ALANA Cultural Center hosted Emily McNeil and Asy Connelly, founders of the Tempestry Project, a collaborative fiber art initiative that represents climate data through knitting, for their weekly Brown Bag series on Friday, Sept. 12.
At the event, McNeil and Connelly explained the origins of the Tempestry Project. What began as a joke about preserving digital data through craft has evolved into a nationally-recognized venture that blends art, science, storytelling, data and activism.
Junior Lucia Monteleone reflected on the accessibility of the project’s format.
“The visualization of the data is so much easier to interpret than just numbers,” Monteleone said. “Instead of spreadsheets, you’re seeing colors … and that makes climate change so much more tangible.”
McNeil and Connelly described how this project visualized a standardized system of translating daily high temperatures into colored yarn patterns. This method enables abstract climate data to become more accessible, revealing long-term trends in a way that is easier for the average person to grasp.
The founders admitted the project had no initial monetary motives. In fact, the original plan had been to make the climate data accessible online alongside instructions for creating the patterns, but as McNeil recalled, people responded with confusion.
“You want us to do what with these spreadsheets? Can you just sell us a kit instead?” McNeil said.
This demand pushed the project into business territory, and kits quickly gained traction online, leading to the creation of “tempestries” across the country.
Connelly explained during the Q&A that these visual data sets, explored through art, are extremely visually useful.
“You can still have a really cold winter, but have a warmer trend. Sometimes having a visual is really useful to see this,” Connelly said.
The reach of the tapestry project has since extended far beyond its beginnings. Organizations and classrooms have been inspired to take part, with even middle school students experimenting with this kind of needlepoint activism.
According to McNeil and Connelly, in one case, a group of students originally from Mexico used the method to compare temperatures in Boulder, Colo., with those from some of their hometowns.
The project has been displayed in permanent collections at institutions such as the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia, Pa., and the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa. A temporary collection has also traveled to sites including Point Reyes National Seashore in California, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and Pikes Peak in Colorado.
In one example, a tempestry from Alaska compared the coldest recorded temperatures across decades: -46°F in 1925, -27°F in 2010 and -16°F in 2017. These changes, rendered in yarn, make the concept of climate change stark, showcasing the climate progression in bold relief.
McNeil emphasized how tempestries change the way we think about climate change. Visualizing the data, she noted, is key to making it resonate.
“We talk about climate in the poles or the glacier melting, but up until recently,” McNeil said, “we didn’t really think about it in our own backyard, or our own town or our own lifetime.”
Junior Lux Hanley found the lecture intellectually inspiring.
“I loved the interdisciplinary approach between art and science. It actually made us want to start knitting — we were just talking about it. As art history minors, it’s exciting to see art connected with other fields,” Hanley said.
McNeil and Connelly also mentioned that this event kicks off the development of the Colgate Tempestry Collection, which is set to be displayed in the Longyear Museum of Anthropology in the spring of 2026.
