Vibrant Spaces: Cargo

In the first Vibrant Spaces, taking place on October 1st at Cargo, fabric artists and tradespeople will come together in the shop to display their works and wares and give talks throughout the afternoon about their processes. Representatives from Altar, Appetite, and Herbivore Clothing will discuss the work their shops and studios do for the ethical production of textile products, Ko Falen will present an installation mud cloths and give a presentation on the Malian mud cloth process, and Kate Blairstone and Lane Hunter will show off the collaborative installation in Cargo’s Textile Room, which Lane built using pieces from the Kate Blairstone collection. All of this, plus food from Gado Gado and drinks from Well Spent Market!

Schedule

1:00pm

• Ko Falen Cultural Center
  • The Nonprofit Ko-Falen Cultural Center, located in Bamako, Mali is the inspiration of Baba Wagué Diakité, a Malian artist and writer now living in Portland, OR. It has been his dream to share the culture of his homeland with the people of his adopted home. Through Ko-Falen’s Tutoring Center, we educate students for FREE, k-12th grade. We also pay for birth papers and sponsor students in the neighborhood school, paying the annual fees for 40 of the most deserving students. Through our 15+ Families Food and Well-Being Program, we feed the most at-risk families and identify members who need help paying medication for chronic health problems. Through our Entrepreneurial Programs, we are training students and graduates to create their own arts and crafts businesses. We are beginning this program by teaching the history and techniques of the unique art of mud cloth. Each year, we purchase some of these artworks to sell in the US. The money earned is put back into these programs, to make them self-sustaining.
  • Installation of mud cloths, a powerpoint presentation of the mud cloth process in Mali, and Q&A with looking at examples.

2:00pm

Panel Discussion

• Altar
  • Cassie Ridgway is the owner of Altar and the designer behind the flagship apparel line, Altar Houseline. For Portland Textile Month, she hopes to cast light on the sustainable initiatives behind the deadstock fabric sourcing she uses for her line as well as the use of zero-waste production models and maximum yields. These efforts have played a salient role in her design process for many years and while sourcing and producing with these methods creates certain challenges, it is also a facet of Altar Houseline apparel that gives every garment unique attributes and adds implicit impact to every piece.

• Herbivore
  • Michelle Schwegmann is the co-founder of The Herbivore Clothing Company, the trailblazing vegan lifestyle brand. She loves helping, cooking, eating and showing people how to live with more compassion for all.
• Appetite
  • Erin Albin is a textile artist and printmaker based in Portland, OR.  Her work is useable homewares like pillows, curtains and buckets sewn from hand screen printed fabrics.

4:00pm

• Kate Blairstone
  • Kate Blairstone’s unique approach to color and pattern have caught the eye of PNW chefs and hospitality designers since 2015. Her custom wall coverings for the likes of Gado Gado in Portland and The State Hotel in Seattle layer color, ingredients and objects with authenticity, wit and sophistication. Kate’s designs center around Identity, exploring botanical elements, animals, pattern and color as symbols for people and places. Her approach to textiles is influenced by traditional handmade processes with an eye toward modern, sustainable technology.
  • insta: @kateblairstone
• Lane Hunter
  • Lane Hunter is an all around creative working in textiles, choreography, film and more. As his name implies he’s always searching for the next path in a creative journey. Clashing traditional hand craft and contemporary settings, Lane stitches history and culture into his work. He’s excited to be collaborating with Kate Blairstone and Cargo; kindred spirits in exploration.
  • Insta: @tworightfeetlane

Gado Gado

Food

Well Spent Market

Drinks

Vibrant Spaces are the centerpiece of this year’s Portland TextileX Month community programming, weekly events that aim to unite us all together in the spirit of regeneration and community-building. Each Vibrant Space takes place in dynamically different locations in neighborhoods across our city and brings together a variety of creators, activists, leaders, and crafters of all skill sets in order to regenerate the sense of community integral to working with textile, with events ranging from free community-centered programming talks, workshops, exhibits, and food. Vibrant Spaces are made possible in part by generous funding from the American Rescue Plan and The Portland Bureau of Transportation.