January 17, 2024 · Alabama ChaninFINDING INSPIRATION IN LISTENING
Conversations. Storytelling. Inspiration.
Last spring, when I first began imagining a new future for Alabama Chanin, The School of Making, and Project Threadways as an integrated nonprofit, our team went into research mode. We launched a Constituent Engagement Study to inform the values, goals, and structure of the future organization, interviewing stakeholders across our community about what they want to see from this work—in programming, in the workplace culture, and in the industry at large. We spoke to board members, employees, artisans, collaborators, partners, and guests. We’ve learned a lot, and we’re still going.
For me, one of the biggest takeaways has been the incredible level of passion and commitment our community has for this work of sustainability, artisan craft, storytelling, and material culture. Today, I want to share a few quotes and ideas from these conversations that have moved and inspired us in this work.
“I’m proud to say that I work for Alabama Chanin. I’m dyslexic, so everything I’ve accomplished is with my hands. It’s rewarding to see things come to life. I made an orange coat ten years ago, and I thought it was so pretty. One day on TV, I saw a news anchor wearing it. A little country girl made that! That means a lot to me.”
— Pam Thomas, Alabama Chanin artisan since 2003 on the work.
“I feel so lucky that I got thrown into this thing that normally wouldn’t be on my radar, to sit and listen to speakers. I don’t get that feeling of understanding culture from a wall text. You start realizing there are all these different stories, histories. Once you understand more you think about all of your individual decisions with a filter. You see how these stories impacted people, culture—everything around it. It definitely affects your vision. It gives you some hope, too.”
— Cathy Bailey, co-owner, Heath Ceramics on Symposium
“The life of textiles can be much longer than our own lives. When I see 100-year-old nightgowns in a flea market, I get lost thinking about the woman who wore them. The idea of preserving history, and a woman’s history being told in a garment, is very powerful to me. And how it connects to other acts of making and consciousness.”
— Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter
These conversations provide fuel for everything we do at Alabama Chanin, The School of Making, and Project Threadways. This is why we do what we do. And we will continue reflecting on it all as we forge ahead into new collections, new workshops, new stories, in the spirit of our organizational mantra: Onward and rising.
xoNatalie
Above:
Textile Stories Quilt by Faye Davis; Indigo American Flag Quilt; fellowship application to Alabama Council on the Arts, featuring photos from The Factory; screen-printing samples of the Shoals Tee; quilts by Loretta Pettway in The Quilts of Gee’s Bend (Kim Kelly and Joeann Pettway West of Freedom Quilting Bee are presenters at this year’s Project Threadways Symposium; get tickets and learn more here.)
Photos by Robert Rausch, Abraham Rowe, and Rinne Allen.