Resources

Climate Art as a Class

 A Collaboration with Artist Mira Musank and the Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week. 

This is a one-hour virtual creative workshop conducted via Zoom. Mira Musank (she/her), textile upcycling artist of Fafafoom Studio will be your host, alongside Karianne Canfield and David Blockstein of Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week. 

During the seminar, Mira will present a series of prompts meant to encourage you to explore your climate art expressions. The prompts will be presented as video clips and voice narration featuring Mira’s textile art works and contemplations. 

In-between each prompt, you will have time to create. Use your prompts and your own imagination to create what comes to mind! After the class, you will have a week to finish your work(s) and submit them as a part of a group exhibition. Everyone who attend this class is eligible to join.

Sign Up for the class April 3rd (2 sessions, 9AM and 12PM EDT) 

Event Follow-Up

Thank you for joining us and/or by watching the recording of the event. If you would like to re-review any of the materials discussed you can find them at the links below: 

• Event Recording
• First Video, Nature and Us by Mira Musank
• Second Video, Act of Repair by Mira Musank
• Third Video, Odyssey of Gathered Clothes by Mira Musank
• Virtual Reality Room

We invite you to submit your work to be featured in a digital gallery on our website in celebration of the Worldwide Climate and Justice Week. The submission form will be open till April 12th. 

Submit My Art

What to bring

What to Expect

THEME: Exploring your climate artivism  // Part live presentation, part recorded series of creative prompts in short clips (max. 2 minutes long) with a narration.

A curated experience tailored exclusively for WWTI collaboration that encourages the attendees to contemplate and express their inner climate artivist in a medium of their own choosing. 

After each prompt is presented, you will be given time to respond to prompts in your chosen creative mediums as you take inspiration from your own surroundings to craft your climate story.

At the end of class, we will reserve 10 minutes for Q&A. 

Supporting Materials

To help you prepare for the class, Mira recommends several resources surrounding sustainability and circularity in fashion and apparel production to check out:

• Sustainability Literacy course (by Slow Factory)
  This is part 1 of 4 courses by Céline Semaan, Slow Factory’s co-founder. Watch all four parts to develop a more comprehensive understanding for your own benefit.
  Céline’s activist work is truly extraordinary; an ongoing call of justice that encourages critical system & design thinking in many global issues.
  
  
• Hidden Story of Plastics in Our Clothes (by Fibershed)
  This whitepaper is published by Fibershed, a non-profit organization developing equity-focused regional and land regenerating natural fiber and dye systems. Headquartered in North California, Fibershed aims to transform “the economic and ecologic systems that clothe us to generate equitable and climate change-ameliorating textile cultures.”
  
  FULL DISCLAIMER: Mira participates in Fibershed’s year-long Design Challenge “Borrowed from the Soil” (March 2023 to February 2024), where North California designers and artists are encouraged to use regionally sourced textiles and create garment prototypes that promote compostability, longevity, and zero waste designs.
  
  
• Remake’s Accountability Report 2024
  Despite the lofty sustainability goals, “it remains clear that the fashion industry is failing both people and the planet.” Browse Remake’s latest accountability report and how 52 of largest fashion companies largely fails to make necessary progress in a timely manner. 

• Textile Exchange’s Knowledge Center
  Making informed choices in materials is necessary in honing a healthy consumer mindset. Textile Exchange’s Material Market Reports support the textile industry’s efforts in climate actions, such as emission reduction in raw material production. 

Climate activism can bloom in infinite ways. Mira’s climate activism is conveyed through textile art and slow fashion processes in giving extended lifespan to discarded textiles.
Here are several resources to learn about her climate artivism expressions. They will be part of the creative prompts presented during class:

• Gathered Cloths project
  Mira’s vanguard climate art project, aimed to show the growing threat of textile waste if left unchecked. Started in 2021, this iterative project uses 100% sewing remnants and challenges the viewers to examine their own relationship with textiles.
  
  
• Accidental Boro Shirt blog post
  In this detailed blog post, Mira describes her step-by-step process in this refashioning project gone wrong. A tattered silk fast fashion shirt, many hours of visual mending, and an accidental boro shirt.
  
  
• March 2024 issue of Fafafoom Studio Newsletter
  Mira’s monthly newsletter on Substack, where she shares her latest projects as an active artist existing in the intersection of slow fashion, textile art, and climate activism. The latest issue details her zero-waste garment explorations that are based on square shapes.
  
  
• Mira Musank’s Textile Art Virtual Gallery
  Browse a selection of Mira’s physical constructions as 3D objects in this immersive virtual gallery hosted on Mozilla Hubs platform. This virtual reality gallery is produced as part of The Climate Gallery project by Climate Creative.
  Recommended setup: Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browser on a laptop / desktop. Close unused tabs for best experience.
  
  Additional resources: 
  • Recording of Mira Musank’s 30-minute Artist Talk held in Climate Gallery’s Hub space
  • Recording of Mira Musank’s Textile Art Gallery Tour 
  • Download presentation slides
  • Access all resources shared in the Virtual Gallery

   

  About Mira Musank

  Mira Musank (she/her) is an interdisciplinary textile upcycling artist based in San Francisco Bay Area who transforms discarded textiles into bespoke garments. Through her platform Fafafoom.com and her monthly publication Fafafoom Studio Newsletter, Mira shares her slow fashion, textile art, and climate artivism projects and thoughtful insights. Passionate about sustainability in fashion, Mira inspires mindful textile consumption and promotes a 'waste not, wear more' ethos.