Textiles from Trees: Ugandan Bark Cloth

Textiles from Trees: Ugandan Bark Cloth

A Brown Bag Lecture by Lesli Robertson

For centuries and into today, bark from a specific tree is stripped, beaten, and used by the people of Uganda. The tree, with its bark removed, does not die, but grows its outer covering back to be used again and again, year after year.

Lubugo, or Ugandan barkcloth, has a diverse history from clothing kings to finding its way onto fashion runways in Europe. Lesli Robertson has been traveling to Uganda since 2005, where she first saw this rust colored cloth folded up in a roadside stall. Since, she has worked with artists, researchers, and community leaders in Uganda to assist in promoting and preserving this cloth.

In this lecture, Lesli will give a behind the scenes glimpse into her work and what she has learned from array of stakeholders who love this material, from fashion designers to 9th generation bark cloth makers. Look for her upcoming Maker to Maker: Ugandan Barkcloth hands-on virtual workshop at BRIT in January. Also, visit her studio, www.mekekadesigns.com, to learn more about her current work.

BIO:

Lesli Robertson is an interdisciplinary textile consultant and project developer who partners with local and international organizations to develop impactful engagement through interactive programs. She has recently worked on projects supported by USAID, the Smithsonian Institution, and Fulbright Specialist program, taking her to countries as diverse as Kuwait, Armenia, Uganda, and Ghana. She launched Mekeka Designs in 2018, creating bespoke textile collections with artisans in Uganda. As a former faculty at the University of North Texas, she spent more than a decade teaching textile and visual arts approaches while developing national and international community programs and opportunities.

Register in advance for this meeting:

 https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqf-ispz0iGN22OV3ocp3GQktwBho1hFaZ

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Brandy Watts will discuss her book The Field Photographs of Alain H. Liogier: Plants of Hispaniola, Dominican Republic, 1968-1969. This volume presents a selection of 116 Kodachrome photographs taken by renowned botanist and former BRIT Research Associate Alain H. Liogier while he conducted research in the Caribbean region over a 15 month period in the late 60’s. Focus will also be given to discussing the value of field photographs in botany research.

Instructor: Brandy Watts, BRIT Librarian

Thursday, December 3, 2020 (12 – 1 pm)

Registration Deadline: December 1    

$12/$10 member

Location: Zoom online class; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

This two-day virtual workshop focuses on the richness of winter botanicals to celebrate the season. Students will complete 1-2 projects (time allowing) inspired by the plants that thrive in the wintertime landscape, using a limited palette. Created for those with some experience in watercolor, this workshop includes a brief review of materials and basic techniques in watercolor.  Students will engage in an ongoing discussion of the unique qualities of this luminous, serendipitous medium. Students will provide their own materials and have their palette set up prior to the workshop. A materials list will be emailed upon registration.

Instructor: Brenda Ciardiello is a Mexican-American artist who paints contemporary landscapes, botanicals, and abstract art that deal with themes of personal connection to nature around the world, as inspired by her travels.  Almost all of her work focuses on using the unpredictable nature of water to depict the unique interplay of color, light and texture in otherwise fleeting elements: water, clouds, and flora. Brenda is heavily influenced by her bicultural and international experience of the world. Born in Mexico City but raised in Texas, she has also lived / studied in Mexico, Italy, the U.K., New York City, New England, the Rocky Mountains and the Middle East. As part of her process she travels whenever possible to capture original source imagery for her work.

Saturday, December 5 & Sunday, December 6 (10 am – 12 pm)

Registration Deadline: December 3

$75/$65 member

Location: This is an online class; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

Materials: A full list of necessary materials will be emailed upon registration; the basic materials include:

• 1 pad or block of 9 x 12 140 lb cold-pressed watercolor paper (Arches)
• 3-4 round watercolor paintbrushes (suggested sizes: 4, 6, 10 and 1” wash brush)
• paints in a palette (Winsor Newton or Daniel Smith primary colors in cool / warm options, at least
• pencil & kneaded eraser
• painter’s Tape (if using loose paper) & particle board to mount paper on
• 2 clear water containers & paper towels

A groovy partnership between the Fort Worth Garden Club, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas provides an opportunity for girls to complete badge work and enjoy nature-based activities together. Join us for some educational fun this year! 

• Time: 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM
• Audience: 2nd - 10th grade
• Price per session: $10 /participant per session

Sessions:

• October 10th: Groovy Plants - Completed
• December 5th: Zen Power - Sold out
• January 23rd: Heading to the Beach
• February 27th: Neato, Flower!
• March 27th: Havin' a Blast with Butterflies
• April 10th: Far Out, Wellness

The December 5th session is now sold out. Click here to register for future sessions! 

The safety of our staff and guests is very important to us. Because physical distancing is difficult to enforce when working with children, a mask requirement, even when outside is necessary for all children’s programming. If you or a family member needs to temporarily remove your mask during a program, designated spaces for this will be available. Activity spaces will be set up according to social distancing needs, and all activity supplies will be either disposable or be used only by one child, then removed for sanitization.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions on group size, it is important we maintain an accurate headcount of participating individuals. This includes both adults and younger siblings staying with the group during activities. Please be sure to include both when making your registrations.

Meeting the first Saturday of most months, our Mindfulness Meditation classes invite you to slow down, release the stresses of everyday life, and tune in to the serenity of the natural world. Learn mindfulness practices and techniques from meditation instructor Lisa November, M.A. Ed. Lisa leads her students in unique, hour-long mindfulness meditations, always attuned to the surrounding natural world. When onsite, classes often take place outdoors, weather permitting. During times of social distancing classes take place virtually. 

Instructor: Lisa November is a meditation teacher based in Fort Worth. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in history and communication from the University of Northern Iowa in 1982 and her Master of Arts in Special Education-Moderate Needs from the University of Northern Colorado in 1992. She is a life-long teacher and learner and has been practicing mindfulness based meditation since 1996. Most recently, she has received the 14 Mindfulness Trainings in the Order of Interbeing, Tiep Hien, Ordained Students of Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh in August of 2019. She is also a student of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a proven heath and wellness program from the Oasis Center at the University of Massachusetts.

Saturday, December 5, 2020 (2 pm – 3 pm)

Registration Deadline: December 3        

$10/$8 member

Location: This class will take place online; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

Self-Guided Explorations provide the freedom to explore the Fort Worth Botanic Garden at your own pace. GROW Educators will not be present during this experience. 

Available: Year-Round,  Monday - Friday 9 am - 3 pm 

$6 /participant (students & registered adults)

Minimum of 20 participants to qualify. 

Any unregistered adult joining on the day of a Self-Guided Exploration will pay the regular garden admission of $12.

Self-Guided Exploration pricing is available for schools, homeschool groups, and after-school programs for children Pre-K-12th grade only. If you want to register a college class or an adult group to visit the garden, please contact Stephanie Sellers for group rates: stephanie.sellers@fortworthtexas.gov

Fill out our quick inquiry form to request a date for your exploration!

Please contact Michelle Schmidlkofer at mschmidlkofer@brit.org with any questions or concerns about Self-Guided Explorations. 

Join textile artist Lesli Robertson and licensed trauma counselor Tiffany Reves to learn healthy ways to manage the stress of a changing world. Using their Self-Care Kits, which began as a conversation between friends and evolved into a textiles-based toolkit for emotional wellness, Robertson and Reves will offer you tactile and therapeutic techniques to deal with the anxiety and stress resulting from COVID-19. Self-Care Kits include instructions for therapy techniques: box breathing, positive self-talk, and grounding techniques. These techniques will be directly tied to a textile based activity using plants, where students will hand dye a face mask with plant materials. Participants will be introduced to the intersection of textiles and therapy, expanding the reach and definition of craft and enhancing well-being and groundedness.

Stay tuned for 2021 Self-Care Workshop dates!

Instructors: Lesli Robertson is an interdisciplinary textile artist and project developer who partners with local and international organizations to develop impactful engagement through interactive programs. She has developed numerous educationally-based trainings and outreach events with the goal of encouraging others to find new perspectives and value on a range of cultural and social topics. These have taken place in countries as diverse at Ghana, Kuwait, Scotland, Uganda, and Armenia. 

Tiffany Reves, MA, LPC-S, NCC is a Licensed Professional Counselor – Supervisor and the proprietor and clinical director of R&AC. She has worked in the mental health field since 2006, in her own private practice as well as a group practice, a mental health hospital, and non-profit social services. Tiffany is trained in EMDR and has specialty training in evidenced based practices for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She specializes in working with veterans and individuals who have experienced trauma. In addition, she served 6 years as the Clinical Consultant for the Denton County Veteran's Treatment Court and continues to provide counseling services to individuals in the program. 

Saturday, December 12 (10 am – 12 pm)

Registration Deadline: December 4

$65/$55 member 

Location: This is an online class; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

Materials: A self-care kit is included in the price of registration and are available for pickup at BRIT. If you need your kit mailed, we are happy to do so for a $10 postal fee. 

Winner of a 2019 Southwest Book Award (BRLA)

In his latest book, Mesquite, Gary Paul Nabhan employs humor and contemplative reflection to convince readers that they have never really glimpsed the essence of what he calls “arboreality.”

As a Franciscan brother and ethnobotanist who has often mixed mirth with earth, laughter with landscape, food with frolic, Nabhan now takes on a large, many-branched question: What does it means to be a tree, or, accordingly, to be in a deep and intimate relationship with one?

To answer this question, Nabhan does not disappear into a forest but exposes himself to some of the most austere hyper-arid terrain on the planet―the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts along the US/Mexico border―where even the most ancient perennial plants are not tall and thin, but stunted and squat.

There, in desert regions that cover more than a third of our continent, mesquite trees have become the staff of life, not just for indigenous cultures, but for myriad creatures, many of which respond to these “nurse plants” in wildly intelligent and symbiotic ways.

In this landscape, where Nabhan claims that nearly every surviving being either sticks, stinks, stings, or sings, he finds more lives thriving than you could ever shake a stick at. As he weaves his arid yarns, we suddenly realize that our normal view of the world has been turned on its head: where we once saw scarcity, there is abundance; where we once perceived severity, there is whimsy. Desert cultures that we once assumed lived in “food deserts” are secretly savoring a most delicious world.

Drawing on his half-century of immersion in desert ethnobotany, ecology, linguistics, agroforestry, and eco-gastronomy, Nabhan opens up for us a hidden world that we had never glimpsed before. Along the way, he explores the sensuous reality surrounding this most useful and generous tree.

Mesquite is a book that will delight mystics and foresters, naturalists and foodies. It combines cutting-edge science with a generous sprinkling of humor and folk wisdom, even including traditional recipes for cooking with mesquite.

At a loss for how to handle the pests in your greenhouse? Then join us for a morning of solutions! Garden expert Jeffrey Myers will share his successful approaches to pest management in this virtual class, taking your questions and helping you in your journey to a manageable greenhouse environment. 

Instructor: Jeffrey Myers has been the rose gardener at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden since December of 2008. A graduate of Penn State University, he received degrees in Agricultural Education and Horticulture.  After college, he taught high school agricultural science before joining the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society where he served as a community garden coordinator, senior education specialist, and Country administrator for the society’s neighborhood greening program, Philadelphia Green.  Jeff spoke to area garden clubs, presented workshops at the Philadelphia Flower Show, and appeared on HGTV’s Philadelphia Flower Show specials.  Jeff created a horticultural job skills training program and community kitchen garden for residents of a homeless shelter in Southwest Philadelphia. In Phoenix, Jeff worked for the Arizona Department of Agriculture as an inspector and the state’s Noxious Weed Coordinator, traveling throughout the state locating invasive plant species and working with area groups and agencies to control and remove the pest. Jeff also acted as the Department’s liaison to the Governor’s Arizona Invasive Species Advisory Council. 

Thursday, January 7 (10 – 11:30 am)

Registration Deadline: January 5

$25/$20 member

Location: This is an online class; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

Learn the basics of seed starting for healthy transplants and expand the varieties of plants growing in your garden. You will gain an understanding of seed starting and seeded pots that can become the foundation for your home garden.

Instructors: Instructors Kim Martin and Laurie Bostic, owners of Barking Cat Farm, teach others to grow high quality crops in an organic and sustainable manner, just as they do. Brix testing is done regularly to monitor the nutritional quality of the produce and compost and compost teas are applied to the soil to ensure that soil biology is constantly improving. Both Laurie & Kim have their Permaculture Design Certificate from Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Design Course. Both have studied under Dr. Elaine Ingham and are working towards becoming Certified Soil Life Consultants. They offer permaculture design and soil biology consulting services to other growers and gardeners.

Saturday, January 9 (10 am – 12 pm)

Registration Deadline: January 7

$30/$25 member

Location: This is an online class; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

Join Culinary Dietitian Dixya Bhattarai, MS, RD, LD for this virtual & interactive workshop focused on gut health and how it impacts overall health and well-being. The class will focus on improving gut microflora using an ancient preservation technique, fermentation. Dixya will share how to incorporate various probiotic and prebiotic-rich food into your diet. This class is a mix of brief lecture and hands-on activity where each participant will learn how to make both kimchi and lacto-fermented hummus. 

Instructor: Dixya Bhattarai, MS, RD, LD is a Fort Worth-based Registered Dietitian & Food and Nutrition Expert. She graduated with a major in dietetics and a minor in Biology from Idaho State University in 2010 before she received a Master of Science in Nutrition in 2016 from Texas Woman’s University. Dixya didn't grow up cooking, but being far from home she craved Nepalese dumplings and her mom's cauliflower curry, which forced her to learn and recreate them in her American kitchen. When she's not working at the hospital, she's probably at a dumpling pop-up, teaching cooking classes, or developing recipes for her website Food, Pleasure, and Health. 

Saturday, January 9 (1 – 3 pm)

Registration Deadline: January 7

$28/$25 member 

Location: This is an online class; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

Materials: Participants will receive a workshop packet, including recipes and a grocery shopping list for the class, upon registration. Groceries will average $15 - $20 and many ingredients will last for multiple batches. 

Healthy gardens start with healthy soil. But how do you get there? Learn the fundamentals of building healthy soil and keeping it that way with Bob Byers, Assistant Director and VP of Horticulture. You will leave with practical tools to create the healthy garden you've always wanted. 

Instructor: Bob Byers is Assistant Director and Vice President of Horticulture. He joined the Fort Worth Botanic Garden as Director in 2015. Bob learned to love gardening and plants working beside his parents in family gardens as a child. After college, he worked professionally as a landscape architect in Wisconsin, Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas before a 21-year career as the Director of Operations and Associate Executive Director for Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He is enjoys growing vegetables and flowers in his home garden in Willow Park and learning the large and varied flora of Texas.

Tuesday, January 19, 2020 (6:30 – 8 pm)

Registration Deadline: January 15        

$25/$20 member

Location: This class will take place online; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

This virtual workshop is focused on gut health and how it impacts our overall health and well-being. The class will focus on improving gut microflora using an ancient preservation technique – fermentation. Dixya will share how to incorporate various probiotic and prebiotic-rich food on a regular basis. You will enjoy a brief lecture and a solo, hands-on activity where you will learn how to make sauerkraut (with an option to add pineapple and turmeric) and tepache, a Mexican fermented pineapple beverage.

Instructor: Dixya Bhattarai, MS, RD, LD is a Fort Worth-based Registered Dietitian & Food and Nutrition Expert. She graduated with a major in dietetics and a minor in Biology from Idaho State University in 2010 before she received a Master of Science in Nutrition in 2016 from Texas Woman’s University. Dixya didn't grow up cooking, but being far from home she craved Nepalese dumplings and her mom's cauliflower curry, which forced her to learn and recreate them in her American kitchen. When she's not working at the hospital, she's probably at a dumpling pop-up, teaching cooking classes, or developing recipes for her website Food, Pleasure, and Health. 

Saturday, January 23, 2020 (1 – 3 pm)

Registration Deadline: January 21    

$28/$25 member

Location: Zoom online class; you will receive an email the day prior to class with the Zoom class code and password. 

Materials: Participants will receive a workshop packet, including recipes and a grocery shopping list for the class, upon registration. Groceries will average $15 - $20 and many ingredients will last for multiple batches. 

Going back to school looks different this year and so do GROW Field Study Trips!

Registration is currently open for Virtual Field Study Trips for Kindergarten - 5th Grade. 

Registration for middle/high school Virtual Field Study Trips is coming soon. 

All Virtual Field Trips are priced for a single class with a maximum of 35 students. Payment must be completed before any materials can be shared.

Tree Level - $80 - Includes 1 Self-guided Activity with:

• Teacher's single-page activity sheet

• Pre-activity video

• Post-activity video

Grove Level - $120 - Includes 3 Self-guided Activities with:

• Teacher's single-page activity sheet

• Pre-activity video

• Post-activity video

• Supplemental Documents

• One 30-45 minute live video session with GROW Girl

Forest Level - $140 - Includes 6 Self-guided Activities with:

• Teacher's single-page activity sheet

• Pre-activity video

• Post-activity video

• Supplemental Documents

• Your choice of one or two 30-45 minute live video sessions with GROW Girl!

Click here to download the PDF guide to K-2 Virtual Field Study Trips.
Click here to download the PDF guide to 3-5 Virtual Field Study Trips.

Or click here to submit a request form now!