2021 Project Threadways Symposium
Join us on April 15 – 17, 2021, in Florence, Alabama, for our annual symposium where we will explore the deep connection between material culture and making across time and place.
Textiles across time and place
The theme of the 2021 symposium—“Textiles Across Time and Place: Examining a complicated past to create a more sustainable future”—places the story of textiles in our community in to a broader context by providing an overview of the timeline of textile history in the United States from the indigenous people who inhabited this area and the fibers they grew through the cotton economy of the antebellum south leading up to the Reconstruction era, sharecropping, and tenant farming. It also maps out the geography from the northeast corridor down through our region, highlighting the once-thriving textile cities and towns.
Symposium speakers will focus on the geography of textiles, material culture, sustainable fashion, and clothing of the enslaved. The list of speakers includes Carrie Barske-Crawford, Jessamyn Hatcher and Thuy Lihn Tu, Dana Thomas, Katie Randall, and Kate Knowles.
The event will include tours of the area, a special lunch with Lisa Donovan, Angie Mosier, Cheetie Kumar, Judith Winfrey, and Ann Marshall, engaging lectures and talks, workshops, (more) good food, and conversation.
PRESENTERS
Owner and creative director of Alabama Chanin and founder of Project Threadways
Natalie Chanin
Host
Founder and principal of Afore Preservation and adjunct professor at University of North Alabama
Katie Randall
Presenter
Director of the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area and an affiliated faculty member in the UNA Department of History
Carrie Barske
Presenter
Fashion and culture journalist and author of "Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes"
Dana Thomas
Presenter
Professor of Global Liberal Studies at New York University
Jessamyn Hatcher
Presenter
Assistant Professor/Curator Dept. of Design and Merchandising/Avenir Museum, Colorado State University
Katie Knowles
Presenter
Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University
Thuy Linh Tu
PresenterSchedule of Events
Thursday, April 15, 2021
6:00pm – Registration and Cocktails
Exhibition Opening: “Textiles Across Time and Place”
Friday, April 16, 2021
9:00am – Late Registration + Rivertown Breakfast @ The Factory
10:00am – Welcome + Introduction
10:30am – The Factory Tour with Natalie Chanin
11:00am – Short Break
11:15am – Material Culture Across Time with Carrie Barske
12:15pm – Short Break
12:30pm – Cloth Bound Lunch featuring Smithy Ironware with Lisa Donovan, Angie Mosier, Cheetie Kumar, Judith Winfrey, and Ann Marshall
2:00pm – The Geography of Textiles with Katie Randall, Jessamyn Hatcher, and Thuy Linh Tu
3:00pm – The Future of Fashion with Dana Thomas
4:00pm – Cocktail Hour + Small Bites @ The Factory
6:30pm – Open evening; optional dinner in downtown Florence
Saturday, April 17, 2021
9:00am – Rivertown Breakfast @ The Factory
10:00am – An Expanded Oral History with Katie Randall
11:00am – Clothing of the Enslaved with Katie Knowles
12:00pm – The State of Threadways: Bag Lunch + Brainstorming
2:00pm – Lecture to be determined
3:30pm – Optional: Making Workshop or Open Afternoon
5:30pm – Pope’s Tavern Tour with local historian Brian Murphy
6:30pm – Farewell Cocktails + Small Bites @ Uniform Shop: Tour of the Future with Carrie Barske
Topics of Discussion
A closer look at the symposium presentations.
Material Culture Across Time
with Carrie Barske
The Future of Fashion
with Dana Thomas
Clothing of the Enslaved
With Katie Knowles
The Geography of textiles
with Jessamyn Hatcher and Thuy Linh Tu
Oral histories Presentation
with Katie Randall