River Valley Arts Collective X Swimming Hole Foundation Workshop

Location: Swimming Hole Foundation, Bearsville, NY

Date: Summer, 2023

Ages: Adults

This workshop was facilitated in partnership with the River Valley Arts Collective and the Swimming Hole Foundation, who also hosted the event. River Valley Arts Collective is “a nexus for artists and artisans of the Hudson Valley to connect with each other and their broader community through a productive exchange that is generative and transformative.” They invited me to teach a workshop with a focus on natural materials offered to their community of local artists. The Swimming Hole Foundation is an invitation-based residency program in the Hudson Valley that “invites groups of creative practitioners to collaborate on transformative projects”. It is situated within a stunning natural environment, which includes it’s namesake feature, a beautiful turquoise blue pond dubbed the “Swimming Hole.”

Workshop description:

In artist and designer Anni Albers’s seminal 1965 text On Weaving, she refers to “Tactile Sensibility” as the way in which “we touch things to assure ourselves of reality.” With Julia’s guidance, we will engage our own “tactile sensibilities'' by exploring natural materials that are local to the Hudson Valley region. By touching and learning how to extract color from plants, soil, and other findings from the natural world—and by playing with them as art materials—we will approach these natural resources as creative collaborators in our art making. We will leave with inspiration and supplies collected from the landscape, pigments derived from the earth, and cloth dyed with plants gathered from the surrounding area.