Creativity Works Internship: James Negron ’24

When the Creativity Works internship applications opened in fall of 2022, James Negron already knew what he wanted to do: dog sweaters. 

Negron’s project was the Warm Wait Mission, a four-month series of free crochet workshops, where attendees made granny squares that were then used to make dog sweaters. The project helped raise money for an organization that aids residents in need by providing health care and other resources for their pets.

These days, Negron is a visual arts teacher at Rainey Institute and works as development and newsletter manager at CAN Journal. His mixed-media work has been exhibited at a number of galleries in Northeast Ohio. 

Negron, who studied Sculpture + Expanded Media, had started to crochet the previous year and became “completely obsessed” with learning to make garments. In his workshops at CIA, he taught students to crochet, supplied materials, and then donated the sweaters to Neighborhood Pets in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood. 

“The idea of hosting crochet workshops and making pet sweaters was inspired by my own dog, and the understanding that financially supporting a pet can be difficult,” Negron says. “I was searching for local shelters to work with and found Neighborhood Pets’ website. I felt a strong connection to their mission and emailed them with information about my proposal. (They) were so kind and willing to help me navigate the obstacles we encountered along the way.”

The collaboration went well for Neighborhood Pets, too, says Becca Britton, Neighborhood Pets’ executive director. The organization serves
9,000 households across Cleveland, providing access to affordable pet care for people with financial needs. 

“James was a great project manager, and we were thrilled at his flexibility on creating a project to help the families and pets that we serve at Neighborhood Pets,” Britton says. 

Negron made 30 to 40 pet sweaters, sewed dog beds for a raffle benefiting the organization’s Pet Aid Fund, and created a calendar featuring clients’ pets modeling the sweaters. 

Business tasks—creating the project description, budget and timeline—have helped him grow as an artist. “These are documents that I still reference when applying to new grants and shows,” he says.

Photo caption: A Yorkshire Terrier wears an orange sweater produced during James Negron’s Creativity Works project, Warm Wait Mission, a four-month series of free crochet workshops in which attendees made granny squares to make dog sweaters. Negron’s community partner, Neighborhood Pets, produced a calendar using photos of dogs wearing the sweaters. Photo by Leah Trznadel ’19.