Natural Dye Workshop with Anna Van Voorhis

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Join Anderson Center artist in residence Anna Van Voorhis for a Natural Dye Workshop at the North Studio Courtyard at the Anderson Center on Thursday, September 24 at 4 p.m. Space is limited, advance registration is encouraged, and masks are required. Rain site is the Tower View Cafeteria. Water and light beverages will be provided.

Participants are encouraged to bring a face mask covering or another piece of white fabric no larger than 8.5” x 11” to dye using natural materials, some of which will include items foraged on-site at Tower View.

Anna Van Voorhis is an interdisciplinary art the works with textiles, plants, paper, wood, cyanotype, performance, among other media. She is currently preoccupied with attempts to cultivate her green thumb. Anna received her M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Minnesota in 2019 and her B.A. in Studio Arts from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2014. She currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has shown work at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery in Minneapolis, MN, at the Junior Varsity Artist Collective in Chicago, IL and at the Art Loft Gallery in Madison, WI. She has also been an artist in residence at the Milchhof Atelier in Berlin, Germany.

While at the Anderson Center Anna will begin developing a large, research-based body of work titled Sowing Clothes. This is an interdisciplinary project that spans textiles, performance, agriculture, research, and writing. Predominantly taking the form of clothing, Sowing Clothes consists of garments made from plant-based fibers designed to sow seeds as the person wearing them walks. The seeds sown by the articles of clothing will in turn grow into the plants needed to produce the fibers and dyes required to make similar garments.

Still in the early stages of research, Sowing Clothes focuses primarily on flax plants as a fiber source (linen) since the plant thrives in colder climates such as Minnesota and was once a major crop sector in the state. In addition to sowing seeds for a fiber source, the clothing will also disperse seeds for dye plants suited to colder climates such as woad, madder and coreopsis. While in residence, Anna will design, cut, dye, and sew clothing from linen with perforated pockets for scattering seeds. The designs will be created in consultation with local fiber growers to ensure that the clothing can disperse seeds in a method that will promote successful plant growth.

https://annavanvoorhis.com/