Christina Roberts of the Fabric Workshop and Museum, who spoke at the Palmer as an Anderson visitor earlier this month, has generously organized a SYMPOSIUM in BORLAND GALLERY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 12-2:30 PM. Titled “FARM TO FASHION: USING ARTS AND AGRICULTURE TO SUSTAIN CULTURO-ECONOMIC CHANGE,” the symposium will introduce participants to methods by which art and design are used to activate communities of traditional craftspeople in order to promote fair labor, income-generating projects. Examples will include projects from Bosnia, Cambodia, China, India, Korea, and Peru. The speakers will offer insightful understanding on how textile and fashion consumer goods can be made using creative alternative methods that are sustainable and safe for the environment. Details are below. Please feel free to come to some or all of the event and to come in and out as your schedules permit. We very much hope to see you there!

Symposium Topics include:
“Politics and Economics of Organic Cotton in India,” examining the real work involved in producing cotton – from soil to stylish living – and breaking open systems that support and sometimes stunt the organic sector.

“Natural Colors of Provence” illustrates a chemist/botanist’s ingenious methods for dyeing and coloring based on careful observation and deep understanding of nature.

“Ethical Consumerism: from jamdani to Afro-American quilt” describes the work philosophies Christina Kim and her successful fashion and lifestyle company, Dosa Inc. offering a case study in how to repurpose materials and thereby minimize waste while empowering female workers and traditional artisans.

Symposium Speakers
Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, an award winning artist, scholar, and curator, from Berkeley California. She is the Founder of Slow Fibers Studios(tm) and President of World Shibori Network and has written several important books on Japanese textiles.

Michel Garcia is the founder of Couleur Garance (1998) in Lauris, France, and established Le Jardin Conservatoire de Plantes Tinctoriales (Botanical Garden of Dye Plants) in 2000 as a horticultural resource for chemists, natural dye researchers, and botanists.

Mani Chinnaswamy hails from a 3rd generation cotton family in Tamil Nadu, India. He pioneered the Cotton Contract Farming Model in India and partnered with his wife Vijayalakshmi Nachiar to launch India’s first “Ethical fashion Label, “Ethicus”, an inclusive growth project involving resource poor organic farmers of Western Ghats and the traditional handloom weavers of Pollachi.