2025 Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium: Enlivening Our Place through Textiles

2025 Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium: Enlivening Our Place through Textiles

Join us for our second year at 78th Street Studios for a day filled with creativity, inspiration, and community. The Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium is convening regional voices from across our local fiber and textile community.

You'll hear from experts within our community as they discuss how focusing on local, natural fibers, dyes, and labor can create unique and vibrant connections, giving this place of ours more life.

Along with our panel of guest speakers in the morning, the afternoon will be immersive and hands-on: learning stations, vendor tables, a clothing swap, and more! Whether you're a textile enthusiast, designer, farmer, gardener, culture shifter, climate advocate, clothes-wearer (we know you are!), someone who sees the connections between all of our living systems, someone who wants to get plugged into a community, or simply curious about the power of textiles to create an enlivened future, this event is a must-attend.

Just like the importance of the local farm-to-table movement, don't miss out on this inspiring opportunity to be a connect in the foundational work of bringing back a place-based, regional textile system in a responsible way-- a way that boasts joy, connection, purpose, and makes our place in the Rust Belt Region a place where we can thrive (yes, clothes can contribute to this!).

Below footage from Last Year's Symposium, courtesy of Kogent Studios:

Virtual Webinar
Thursday Evening, January 16th
7:00-8:30pm (recording will be available for registrants) via webinar
While the main conference takes place on Saturday, January 25th, in person, we'll start the festivities a week beforehand to lay some foundational groundwork about why natural fibers and dyes are so amazing. We'll hear from a panel of experts on differnt natural fibers and dyes. Learn a little more about the power of wool, alpaca, angora, hemp, flax, and natural color! Registration included in your ticket and recording will be available for a limited time afterwards.

In-person at 78th St. Studios in Cleveland.
8:15-1:00 bottom floor 78th St. Studios: Speakers, Fashion Show, mingling, refreshments
Registration begins bright and early at 8:15 on Saturday morning at the beautiful 78th Street Studios in Cleveland. Come early and mingle! Opening address begins at 8:50. Exact speaker list to come, but we will hear from soil and water experts, including farmers and researchers, designers and manufacturers, natural builders, and more. We will close out the speaking portion of the morning with a celebratory fashion show showcasing outfits upcycled and made completely from within the Rust Belt Fibershed by local artisans. Pastries, fruit, coffee, and tea will be served.

NOTE: This year, we're offering a virtual streaming option! We're able to stream audio and presentation slides if used. There will be no video of the actual speakers on stage or of the fashion show. See virtual streaming option when registering.
1:00- 2:00 second floor 78th St. Studios: special time for morning-only attendee with first access to clothing swap, vendors, and learning stations.
After the fashion show, we'll head upstairs and connect over hands-on demonstrations, shop local fiber and clothing vendors, connect more with people you heard from during the symposium, learn about aligned organizations in the area, and have the opportunity to participate in a *clothing swap (if you'd like, bring a few well-loved items to drop off in the morning before the symposium and our volunteers will organize!). Please note we will not be offering a formal lunch, but will have plenty of savory and sweet pastries and fruit from Luna bakery throughout morning.

2:00-4:00pm: learning stations and vendors are free and open to the public
The learning stations and vendors will be open to symposium ticket holders only from 1:00-2:00 , and then open to the public for free from 2:00-4:00.
*Clothing Swap: morning ticket holders only so we have time to organize donations. Folks who come to the open-to-the-public portion after 2:00 may take home leftover clothes without swapping.
Hands-on Learning Demos: sewing, mending, crocheting, wet-felting, cordage-making, flax-to-linen processing, suri-alpaca-fleece touching, roving demo, and so much more!
Shop Vendors: fiber straight from local farms, vintage vendors, local cut-and-sew vendors, natural dyers, and more!

Anyone who wears clothing, uses bedsheets, pulls curtains closed, has a rug in their home (you get the picture)! More specifically: if your interests include any of the following: Fashion, Agriculture, Gardening, Building, Textiles, Sustainability, Art, Local Economies, Health, Resilience, Climate Action, Animals, Community Building, Ecology, and so much more.

By participating in this symposium, you are directly contributing to momentum to make our Rust Belt region a better place to live. We want to meet you, and we hope to see you there!

DETAILED AGENDA: coming soon!

Learn more about how textiles are made, pick up a hobby, go home having supported local organizations and business, and make some new connections!

SCHOLARSHIPS
We want the symposium to be as accessible as possible.
- STUDENTS: for a 50% off scholarship please use the code: STUDENT at checkout
- FIBER FARMERS: we are offering free admission as a gift for our Rust Belt Fibershed farmers. Please use the code FARMER if you are a fiber farmer and would like free registration. This scholarship (and others) is offset by our trust in receiving sponsorships and purchased registrations. Thank you, fiber farmers!

- VOLUNTEERS: We have some volunteer options currently available in exchange for free registration! Please reach out [email protected] if you are interested before registering.
-OTHER: We have a limited amount of totally paid for spots for those who need it and cannot volunteer. If you are seeing this, those spots are still available. Please be sure you can commit to coming as we anticipate selling out again this year, and use the code SCHOLARSHIP at checkout.

About 78th Street Studios:
78th Street Studio is an old industrial building. When you enter the building from the main door, you enter onto a landing. From there, there's a short flight of stairs going down to the level where the morning event will be held, and then a short flight going up to where the learning stations and vendors will be held in the afternoon. Once you're on one floor or the other, there is an elevator that can take you to the different floors. If you need an elevator to navigate the initial stairs, there is a chair lift on the other side of the building, and we will put a sign with a phone number on the door, so we can help you when you arrive. Please email if you have any additional questions.

Photography Disclaimer:

Please be aware that by participating in this event, you are entering an area where photography, audio, and video recording may occur. By your presence, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded.
Your entry constitutes your consent to such photography, filming, and/or recording and to any use, in any and all media throughout the universe in perpetuity, of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in connection with the Rust Belt Fibershed.
You understand that all photography, filming, and/or recording will be done in reliance on this consent given by you by entering the event area.
If you do not agree to the foregoing, please let our event staff know so that we can accommodate your preferences.
Thank you for your understanding and support in helping us capture the spirit of this event!

Host or Publisher Rust Belt Fibershed