An ongoing planting, dyeing and growing project by Katie Pollard with ‘For Solidarity’, focusing on Degrowth and Care
Projects
The NewBridge Project Gallery is closed throughout March. NewBridge Books will be open as usual.
An ongoing planting, dyeing and growing project by Katie Pollard with ‘For Solidarity’, focusing on Degrowth and Care
This year at The NewBridge Project, artist Katie Pollard is running a growing project to create a mini dye garden as a shared resource for NewBridge members and the local community. This project centres practice of Degrowth, respecting slow, natural processes of growth and care, in line with For Solidarity‘s current themes.
Volunteers planted a range of dye plants from seed in April and have since shared responsibilities in nurturing these seedlings, gathering each week, getting their hands in the soil, sharing conversation, food and knowledge. Volunteers have been involved in seed propagation, planting and re-potting, compost mixing and watering plants.
Dyers Coreopsis, Dyers Chamomile, Yellow Cosmos, Dahlia, French Marigolds, Hopi Sunflower, Japanese Indigo, Purple Pincushion flower and Madder have been planted. Colour can be extracted from all of these plants in a variety of different ways for use with natural materials. This includes textiles such as cotton, linen, hemp, silk, and wool as well as other materials such as paper, wood, shells, reeds, etc. The potential outputs are equally varied and can be in the form of dyes, drawing inks, paints, screen and block printing inks, direct contact printing and more.
The NewBridge Dye Garden is now open to visit as part of the Habit Ability exhibition and will be an evolving display as things grow and begin to flower. Volunteers continue to care for the plants as they grow and the plants will be harvested later in the year to produce dyes for community fabric dyeing workshops.
Workshop dates coming soon!
Get in touch with Katie on klpollard@hotmail.co.uk for more info on the project.
Katie is a natural dye artist and dye plant grower based in Newcastle. She has a process and experimentation led practice and makes her own inks and dyes from plants. Her work has a multidisciplinary approach, often working in the medium of textiles and paper. Socially engaged practice is important to her and she runs dye and growing workshops hoping to boost community wellbeing and build connection to place. Her individual work is often inspired by nature, her local environment and the body. She is interested in degrowth, local resilience, solidarity and permaculture.
More of her work on Instagram: @borrowedcolour and @seekshieldfield
For Solidarity is an ongoing project to make visible and strengthen all of the organisations, projects, initiatives and individuals in the region who are offering an alternative to the extractive and oppressive mainstream economic system. Their belief is that we are stronger together in order to nurture a growing peer support network of grass-roots initiatives, helping people to meet their material and social needs in ways that don’t harm people or the planet.
The project was initiated in 2019 by The NewBridge Project and the Solidarity Economy Association.
During 2021 – 2022 For Solidarity will be exploring the themes of Degrowth and Care.
The NewBridge Project
Shieldfield Centre
4-8 Clarence Walk (off Stoddart Street)
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 1AL
The NewBridge Project is accessible. You can find out more here, or feel free to contact us prior to visiting if you require additional information regarding access and facilities.
The NewBridge Project is supported by Arts Council England, Newcastle Culture Investment Fund, Newcastle University’s Institute for Creative Arts Practice and the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
