“The Immigrant Yarn Project,” which identifies itself as “the largest work of crowdsourced art in the country,” is on the second level of Fort Point until May 19, free and welcoming visitors every weekend, Friday to Sunday. The project displays works of art knitted and crocheted by more than 600 people across the country, in celebration of immigrants and immigration.

The display of these completed works is the end result, but the point of it all is in the doing: hundreds of people pitching in to create patches to be joined together to create a whole, as millions of immigrants have joined together to create a country. The project, envisioned by San Francisco artist Cindy Weil as the first public project of her nonprofit called Enactivist, was created in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

What the visitor to Fort Point sees, arrayed around the second floor balcony and visible from the floor of the place, is 75 pole-shaped forms, each 4, 5 or 6 feet high with a radius of a foot. Each “totem” is covered by a kind of fitted quilt of sewn-together contributions of knitted or crocheted pieces, “any size from a flower to a blanket.” Non-knitters are invited to donate pom-poms to be added to the sculptures. Each contribution, while evoking one person’s immigration story, evokes the whole, a metaphor for the making of America, an entity created from cultures around the world.

Organizers are still seeing contributions, “whatever you think represents you and/or your family’s diversity story: A square, a flower, a flag — whatever. Additionally, you can donate your swatches. How about an old granny square lap blanket in the back of the closet?”

Some of the people who have contributed have sent written stories, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who submitted a knitted American flag, about 5 by 8 inches, she had made with her sister, Anna Katherine Silva. She sent that with an email describing what the flag meant to them, as immigrants from Czechoslovakia.

The San Francisco exhibition of the project will be followed by displays around the country, and Weil said last week that she is working out schedules for those installations. It’s already too late to contribute a piece for local viewing, but Weil is still accepting pieces that will be incorporated after the exhibition closes here and moves on. There’s information about submitting work at www.immigrantyarnproject.org.

In talking with Weil about the project, I referred to the submissions as “patches,” a term to which the artist objected. “I prefer not to call them patches,” she said. “I see that what we’ve done is taken this art form, which is old as time, and given it the respect and honor that it deserves.” Knitting and crocheting, needlework, has “been degraded because it’s largely a female art form. So what I have tried to do, as well as making this broader statement about immigration ... is to give voice to communities that are sometimes voiceless. This is an explosion of work from historically voiceless communities.”

She has received creations from homeless people, elders, students, native Americans, LGBTQ people and more. SF Men Knit made two totems — one of the Statue of Liberty, one an homage to San Francisco — on their own. “These guys are amazing,” said Weil.

The word “patches,” she said, “makes it seems like a craft. We make art here. Little works of art.”

It’s so easy to love San Francisco, especially if it’s on someone else’s dime. San Francisco Travel’s annual report said tourism levels were up 1.2 percent in 2018, and visitor spending was up 2.4 percent. Embedded in that report were some particularly delicious statistics, including the fact that per capita, the visitor to San Francisco spent $10,534 for every resident.

The average visitor is said to spend $360.17 per day in San Francisco; the average convention attendee spent $567.25 per day. That’s about $200 more spent by conventioneers than if the money were coming out of their own pockets.

A bottle of Champagne? Group outing to a Giants game? Treating 20 co-workers to the Thursday night prime rib dinner at the Gold Club (the “No. 1 adult destination for conventioners and business travelers”)?

PUBLIC EAVESROPPING

“I am trying to decide between studying mortuary science or if I will be better at music production.”

Young woman in Los Angeles, overheard by Stephen Vincent

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, 415-777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik