Weave, Repair, Connect Textile Repair Salon

Dip your toes into the world of textiles during MASS MoCA’s Textile Repair Salon! Join regional practitioners Jena Duncan and Elsa Cousins from Swanson’s Fabrics Stash House and MASS MoCA museum educators for a casual evening of textile repair, embroidery, and small-scale weaving.

Participants are welcome to bring textile objects or clothing in need of repair and learn mending skills with support from Swanson’s Fabrics teaching staff. Mending is for everyone; no sewing experience is required! This project aims to build a culture of clothing reuse and repair by empowering the local community to make, mend, and maintain clothing and textiles. It’s also for community members concerned about the sustainability and environmental impact of textiles who may not see themselves as able to sew.

If you don’t have a repair, don’t worry! MASS MoCA museum educators will teach small-scale weaving and invite participants to contribute to the community weaving project currently on view.

Bring your friends, bring a date. Refreshments are available to purchase from MASS MoCA’s bar. All materials are included, though participants are welcome to bring their own and share with others.

About the educators:

Jena Duncan (they/them) is a fiber arts artist passionate about community building. They share sewing as a liberatory and healing practice to help people feel more at home in their bodies and keep textiles out of landfills by extending their use. Jena founded Blushing Mustard Studios in Greenfield’s Madhouse Multi-Arts, offering gender- and fat-affirming clothing alterations, repairs, and custom commissions. They teach sewing and mending classes at Swanson’s Fabrics, a second-hand textile store and education center in Turners Falls. Jena also works as an art installer and fabricator, helping artists bring their work to life, most recently at MASS MoCA, MCLA’s Gallery 51, and UMass’s University Museum of Contemporary Art.

Elsa Cousins, Director of Education at Swanson’s Fabrics, is an artist and educator who teaches mending and sewing classes at Swanson’s Fabrics Stash House, local libraries, and community spaces, as well as environmental science classes at UMass Amherst and Holyoke Community College. They have a PhD in Environmental Conservation from UMass and explore the intersection of sustainability and textiles through mending, alterations, and custom sewing commissions with second-hand textiles. They also run a popular weekly mending night at Swanson’s Fabrics Stash House.

About Swanson’s Fabrics Stash House:

Swanson’s Fabrics is a community fabric and fiber craft store in Turners Falls, MA, stocked with unused items from other sewers. It is a thrift store with a mission to supply everyone with affordable materials while helping those with too much reduce their stashes in a comfortable way. The Stash House is Swanson’s Fabrics’ educational branch, with a goal of empowering people to make and repair their own fiber goods and clothes and equipping them with education and tools. It offers workshops, materials, and community space to foster the exploration of fiber arts and sewing. The Stash House values the knowledge-sharing that happens organically in community spaces as much as formal teaching in classes and workshops.

Support is provided by The Coby Foundation, Ltd.