Maths Craft New Zealand’s third Christchurch Maths Craft Day was held on Sunday 23rd May in The Great Hall and The Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities, both located in Christchurch’s historic Arts Centre. Over 1,500 visitors explored maths through crafts at our free day-long event. They enjoyed eight craft creation stations in The Great Hall and one in The Teece Museum, along with public lectures given by mathematicians, crafters, and classicists. Our hands-on craft stations were staffed by a trained team of volunteers drawn from University of Canterbury students and staff, from local school teachers, and from a growing pool of experienced volunteers from other Maths Craft New Zealand events. These volunteers guided our visitors through the maths and the craft at the craft stations: Möbius strips, mathematical colouring and drawing, knitted knots, Menger cubes, origami, flexagons, crocheted hyperbolic planes, meanders, and string art.
Our helpful volunteers engaging with the public at the craft stations.
The Crochet Station.
This was our first major public event since COVID-19 disrupted our plans in 2020, and our first in Christchurch since 2018. We were thrilled to welcome back the public to the beautiful heritage setting of The Great Hall, and to see that enthusiasm for our events has only grown in our absence. Our first visitors to the Christchurch Maths Craft Day arrived even before our doors opened at 10am, with the flow of visitors continuing steadily throughout the day, and with more arriving even as we were preparing to close at 5pm. This year, in addition to the usual crafting tables on the raised stage at one end of the Hall, at which visitors sat and worked together on their chosen craft, we also included craft tables in the Hall itself. These extra tables were more accessible for those less able to climb the stairs to the stage, but also meant more people were able to sit and work on their craft and think about maths in comfort. All of the craft tables were busy all day long, with our friendly and keen volunteers circulating with advice, encouragement, and materials. People stayed for hours, exploring the crafts at the stations with help from our volunteers, and enjoying the many maths craft objects on display at the stations and in display cabinets. The Hall was busy all day, and indeed the main feedback on our exit survey – apart from enjoyment of the day itself – was a request for us to move to a larger space next time. We agree that we have probably outgrown this beautiful space, and we will with regret look for a larger venue for our next Christchurch Maths Craft Day.
Crowds fill The Great Hall in the afternoon and every seat is occupied!
The festival attracted media attention, with a segment appearing on TV3’s Newshub on the same day and interviews with our Director, Dr Jeanette McLeod, and two of our speakers, appearing on Radio New Zealand’s Our Changing World and Afternoons soon after. The journalists interviewed some of our many visitors, and filmed people working in family groups to understand beautiful mathematical concepts while working with their hands to make beautiful craft objects. The footage and interviews captured the feel of the event, with people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds working together in an atmosphere of serious fun.
Katy Gosset from RNZ interviews Professors Hinke Osinga and Bernd Krauskopf.
Three free public lectures were held in the Recital Room of UC Arts, next to The Teece Museum and just across the quad from The Great Hall. The lectures were given by four mathematician crafters and were attended by over 160 visitors of all ages. The first lecture was given by Maths Craft New Zealand’s Director Dr Jeanette McLeod, a pure mathematician from the University of Canterbury. Her entertaining talk, entitled “Four Colours Are Enough”, was a riveting look at the history of the infamous Four Colour Theorem and its links with knitting, quilting, colouring, and her own craft story. The next lecture was given by a new speaker for Maths Craft giving his first ever public lecture, Dr Michael Langton of the University of Canterbury. His engrossing talk on “Zigzags, Fractals, and Pleating” wove together mathematics, family history, and craft. Finally, we were delighted to welcome back as speakers Prof Hinke Osinga and Prof Bernd Krauskopf, who have given many popular talks at Maths Craft events. Professors Osinga and Krauskopf, applied mathematicians from the University of Auckland, gave a compelling joint talk entitled “Chaos in Crochet and Steel” about how their research inspired the creation a beautiful crochet object and a collaboration with an artist to make a stunning mathematical sculpture.
Dr Michael Langton gives his entertaining talk “Zigzags, Fractals, and Pleating”.
Dr Michael Langton gets his audience to try some origami.
We were excited to collaborate once again with The Teece Museum by having a craft station in the museum with a specially-developed craft activity which allowed visitors to explore the mathematics of meanders in ancient art. These beautiful repeating patterns can be found on pottery and mosaics from the ancient world, and our maths craft activity led people through the hidden but beautiful mathematical symmetries and algorithmic thinking behind the creation of meanders. By running this craft activity in The Teece Museum, visitors were able to explore the mathematics of meanders while surrounded by beautiful examples from The Logie Collection housed in the Teece. This is the third time that we have run the Christchurch festival in conjunction with the Teece, and the museum reported that almost 400 visitors came through their doors that day, many of whom were first-time visitors, compared to a typical winter Sunday of 50 people.
The Breach Collection on display.
Maths Craft New Zealand and the School of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Canterbury are the proud custodians of The Derrick Breach Collection of Polyhedra. At the Christchurch Maths Craft Day we were privileged to be able to share once again a number of objects from the collection with the Maths Craft audience. Incorporating more than 300 models painstakingly crafted from paper by mathematician Derrick Breach, the collection is widely acknowledged as being without parallel in the Southern Hemisphere. Derrick made the collection during his tenure at the University of Canterbury in the period from the early 1970s through to the mid-1990s. Following his death in 1996, a dedicated gallery and teaching space was established to showcase these extraordinary objects to individuals, school tour groups, and university students alike. Regrettably this popular outreach activity was ended by the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes. Planning is underway to once again enable the community to step into the Breach and be filled with wonder at one man’s labour of love to mathematics and craft. The dedicated Derrick Breach Collection display cabinet was surrounded by fascinated visitors all day long.
The third Christchurch Maths Craft Day was a big success, with over 1,500 enthusiastic people of all ages and backgrounds spending the day exploring maths through craft. Our exit survey results show high levels of enthusiasm and engagement. For example, 91% of respondents said that they “loved” the day, and over 91% said they would “definitely” do something like it again. In answer to the question “what did you think about mathematics before the event?”, 6% of people said they didn’t like maths and 30% said that it was only “okay”, with 64% arriving at the event liking mathematics. However, by the end of the event 83% said they liked maths, while only 17% said it was okay, and no-one said that they disliked it. Survey comments include “Everything was great”, “Keep it up”, “Well organised”, “Fab environment”, and “It was awesome!”. It was wonderful to have another successful event in our home town of Christchurch, in the stunning setting of The Great Hall, and to build on our relationship with The Teece Museum. We thank all of the sponsors of the 2021 Christchurch Maths Craft Day, and look forward to our future events with excitement.
