Overgrow the System:

Enlivening our Place through Fiber & Textiles

Mark your calendars for the second annual Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium!

January 25, 2025

Join us for a day of reimagining our textile relationships

What happens when we see our textile community not as a system of production and consumption, but as a living, breathing ecosystem? How might our relationships with materials, makers, and place transform when we embrace the fullness of what textiles can mean in our lives?

The 2025 Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium invites you to explore these questions through the lens of nested ecologies—the intricate web of relationships that connect soil health to human health, traditional skills to future resilience, and individual crafting to community wellbeing.

Interested in sponsoring the event?

Our Second Annual Symposium!

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!).

Registration for the 2025 Symposium includes two parts:

PART ONE: Laying the Groundwork for Natural Fibers

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.

PART TWO: The Main Event: Enlivening our Place through Local Fiber & Textiles
Saturday, January 25th

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!

WHO IS THIS CONFERENCE FOR?

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!

Interested in sponsoring the event?