Art & AgriCulture: Beauty in Botany With Textile Printmaking

Why do we grow the things that we grow? Why do we use the things that we use?

Join us as we remember y(our) roots while preparing for the holiday season.

In this playful, plant-centered workshop, you’ll explore textile printmaking using flower petals, seedheads, and vegetables from the garden as your stamps. Come customize a tea towel or tote bag and head home with a one-of-a-kind creation infused with the textures and colors of the season.

Prepare to get a little messy as we dive into hands-on stamp making and sensory mark-making. As we turn inward and gather for Winter, let your tote bag hold your harvest—or use your tea towel to wipe up any tears (of laughter!)—with the print becoming a gentle reminder of your roots, your seasons, and your connection to the land.

Your Facilitator: Jules Jīvanī Ruby Kulaya

I focus on ritual, routine, and divinity across nature & culture in my art and holistic wellness services. Through a long-term background working in theater, I became disenchanted with the industry- as time went on… particularly, post Lockdown – it wasn’t the storytelling I thought I signed up for. I found there was a lack of intention in the processes, and a lot of waste, adding to the climate crises When I began to seriously set aside time for the care of my spirit, I began to learn, remember – that what I was called to practice, was already rooted in my body’s memory and ancestry. My lived experience & career has led me to an ethos rooted in advocacy & activism for the overlapping intersections of the global majority, LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse communities, with a focus on mental wellbeing and resource access.

“Another thing we lost is culture. . . look at the word agriculture. We lost that connection. And so now it’s going back to the culture of agriculture. Why do we grow the food that we do?” – Karen Washington

Why do we grow the foods we do? How is culture tied to our local foodways and agricultural systems? What stories of nourishment are you hungry to tell? What creative acts are you being called to digest? In this weekly series, explore various techniques and practices introduced by visiting artists who will lead us in expressing our relationship to food, agriculture, and the histories and stories that shape how we connect with our foodways.

Through various artmaking techniques like bookmaking, printmaking, collage, sculpture, natural-pigment making and painting, alternative photography processes, participants will create artwork that begins to answer the question: Where is the culture in our agricultural system?

This is a free drop-in program. Come to every class to build on your skill or come to one or two that you are available for. Explore your relationship to food and agriculture and the ways our food systems can connect us more deeply to our local ecosystems and communities.

Workshops are rain or shine.

When inside the greenhouse and kitchen we will open our double-doors and windows to vent the space and encourage masking and social distancing when in more closed-in spaces.

Accessibility: Our kitchen/classroom space is wheelchair accessible. With prior planning, we can add a few small mats onto the pebbled ground of greenhouse to make a small wheel-chair accessible path. Our learning garden has grass paths, and the entrance is through a gate with a small, raised entrance. Our tables can be lowered/raised, and we have several backless benches or stools. Our kitchen is in regular use, and while we try to cook without peanuts, much of our cookware is shared and we cannot guarantee a nut-free environment. We have a first aid kit, and the closest AED is in another building several yards away. Drinking water is made available in refillable pitchers.

Our closest bathrooms are a building away, about a one-minute walk. A gender neutral bathroom is also available, and this is accessible by key which you can request from staff. We are not a scent-free zone, and because herbalism classes take place here, cannot guarantee that the site will be clear of any essential oil smells. If you have needs not addressed here, please reach out to Mallory Craig at mcraig@thehort.org.