LOOM CLUB at Contemporary Craft Special Edition: Sarah Silk presents on the Rust Belt Fibershed

Date: Wednesday, October 15th

Time: 6pm-8pm

Description: LOOM CLUB at Contemporary Craft welcomes artist Sarah Silk for an evening of learning and discussion, as Sarah shares about the work of Rust Belt Fibershed.

Rust Belt Fibershed consists of 250 mile radius outside of Cleveland, Ohio including parts of Michigan, southern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and Western New York. It is Rust Belt Fibershed’s goal to build a community that collaboratively supports locally grown textiles in a way that decrease consumption of fast fashion and works to restore soil health.

In their talk, Sarah will explain what a fibershed is, why it matters, and what the Rust Belt Fibershed is/ is up to, including the current exhibition on view at the Brew House Arts on the Southside of Pittsburgh: One Year, One Outfit.

LOOM CLUB is a volunteer organization at Contemporary Craft that meets regularly to maintain and build the equipment of the Fibers Studios. On October 15, LOOM CLUB will take a break from regularly scheduled loom work to engage in a lively presentation and conversation about the Rust Belt Fibershed.

Cost: FREE! (with registration)

Location: Contemporary Craft, Timmons Studios (5688 Butler St., Pittsburgh, PA 15201). Note, this workshop will take place in the Fleischner Family Fibers Loft, which is on the second floor of the building.

There are 2 entrances to the Timmons Studios.

• One entrance is facing Butler Street. To access the Fibers Loft from the Butler Street facing entrance, there are a total of 32 stairs to ascend.

• One entrance is facing 57th Street. This entrance is accessible by ramp, with no stairs to ascend. There is a lift inside the building to access the second floor.

If there are accessibility accommodations we can provide, or if there is anything you would like us to know before you arrive, please feel free to call Jamie Boyle at 412-465-1639 or email jboyle@contemporarycraft.org.

Cancellations and Refunds: Workshop cancellations are decided three business days before the start date. If workshops must be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment, the entire class fee will be refunded through Eventbrite, or you may leave your workshop fee in your Contemporary Craft account for future workshops.

Sarah Silk (they/she) is a Pittsburgh artist working in a range of mediums including textiles, movement, and performance. They learned the art of quilt making and fiber reuse alongside their Mom Louise Silk, a Pittsburgh fiber artist for over 40 years. The two of them started SilkDenim in 2012 as a response to unsustainable ‘fast fashion’ and one-time use products. As SilkDenim, they deconstruct used clothing by hand and re-make the materials into quilts, home goods, accessories, and garments. Sarah is an active member of the Rustbelt Fibershed, which is a bioregional textile community growing hope and resilience through local fiber, local color, and local labor. Among a variety of engagements with the fibershed, Sarah participated in all 3 of the “One Year One Outfit” projects, in which volunteers are challenged to create a 3-piece outfit that is entirely locally sourced and made over the course of a year. Sarah is also a theater actor, a somatics teacher, and the only Pittsburgh area teacher of the Feldenkrais method of somatic education. You can learn more about their work at silkdenim.us, feldenkraispittsburgh.com, or sarahsilk.net.