College to Host Textile Artist Sept. 20

Westminster College will host author, educator, and textile artist Rebecca Burgess for a lecture on natural plant dyes Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 6 p.m. in the Berlin Student Lounge of the McKelvey Campus Center.  The program is free and open to the public.

Burgess will also conduct a demonstration and workshop for the Westminster team-taught art and biology cluster course "Pattern and Process: the Art and Science of Nature."

Burgess, a fifth-generation resident of the Northern California watershed where her great-grandparents lived, has studied sustainable fiber and natural dye production processes of native communities in Indonesia, Thailand, and Laos, as well as California.

Learning from traditional artisans has inspired the fibershed model, a local and regional resource area for creating natural textiles, dyes, and clothing.  The Fibershed Project is a challenge to live for a year in clothes made from fibers that are solely sourced within a geographical area no more than 150 miles from her home.

She founded Ecologicalarts in 2005, an organization dedicated to creating, reviving, and teaching textile art forms that utilize botanical resources in a manner that promotes the health and regenerative processes of the ecosystem.

Burgess's recently published book, Harvesting Color, is available for purchase in Westminster's bookstore and will be available at the program.

Sponsorship of Burgess's visit comes from Westminster's Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning; Department of Communication Studies, Theatre and Art; and Distinguished Speaker Series on the Environment.

Contact Peggy Cox, Westminster professor of art, at (724) 946-7266 or email for additional information.

Rebecca Burgess

Pokeweed berry as a natural dye on wool yarn