Program:
FLEET: UBC + The Fabric of Campus Fibre Garden
We're looking forward to seeing you at FLEET: UBC!
A partnership with The Fabric of Campus Fibre Garden.
From August 2026 to spring 2027 a wide range of artists, researchers, and collaborators will be offering an exciting range of projects, workshops, and happenings in the FLEET: UBC studio and/or in the Fibre Garden. Some are open to everyone, some are for specific communities (*** - everyone welcome! * - invite only, for specific communities :) Please check the FLEET & Fibre Garden instagram pages for updates.
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FLEET: UBC Program Schedule (followed by bios)
*** August 3 - 14, 2026
Dirty Dishes Collective (DDC) FLEET:UBC residency
Exploring kinship with gathered materials, DDC will be experimenting with paper-making and fibre-based practices using flax waste and other “offcuts,” with the intention of creating an artist book. A zine library and workspace will be available for the public to engage with during Open Studio times, alongside an artist book workshop on August 14th.
Open Studio days: 1-3pm on
- Tuesday, August 4th
- Friday, August 7th
- Monday-Wednesday, August 10th-12th
- Or, by appointment (reach out via instagram)
Workshop:Offcuts: gathering as practice + material as language
Friday August 14th from 3-5pm (register through DDC's instagram)
Offcuts is an artists’ book workshop that explores kinship with gathered materials, and considers how patchworked systems can become a form of language. Flax waste, fabric scraps, bread clips, handwritten secrets, and other “offcut” ephemera form the pages of the book. Exploring the lifeworlds of objects and personal collections, participants will be guided in creating their own book with found and unconventional materials.
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* August 5th
Re-imaging the Local: Sustainable Material Flows and Vancouver Island Wool - meeting of Salish textile makers, with researcher Alison Ariss and Vancouver Island Fibreshed
The Material Flows Workshop is a one-day, hands-on experimental workshop that will begin a conversation between a small group of Salish textile makers and the Vancouver Island Fibreshed, to find common ground for the future production of sheep’s wool from Vancouver Island, and for the creation of local, sustainable textiles. This workshop is funded by the UBC Public Humanities Hub, Graduate Fellowship and the Slow Fashion Research Cluster.
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*** Last Mondays of the month 12-4pm - visit the FLEET Natural Plant Dyer in Residence &/or experience an "ECOTarot" reading!
FLEET: UBC Natural Plant Dyer in Residence: Rita Point Kompst
Rita Point Kompst's FLEET: UBC residency begins on August 17th (drop by from 12-4pm,) and continues on every last Monday of the month until March 1st. During her FLEET time Rita will be working in the studio, experimenting with fibre garden plantings, and dying with local plants on the FLEET patio, between 12-4pm, drop by anytime! March 1st workshop details to come.
Open Studio days: 12-4pm on
- August 31st
- September 28th
- October 26th
- November 30th
- January 25th, 2027
- and February 22
Workshop: Monday March 1st - in collaboration with Slow Fashion Season. Details to come.
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AND! ECOTarot Climate Future Tarot readings with Adriene Jenik
During her residency at UBC’s Fabric of Campus Fibre Garden, Adriene will be offering “climate future readings” every last Monday of the month with her custom ECOtarot deck. These ECOtarot readings address eco-anxiety and eco-grief as they open querents up to new possibilities that exist even in the midst of climate disruption. No previous tarot experience or knowledge is necessary.
Climate future reading times: 12-4pm on
- August 31st
- September 28th
- October 26th
- November 30th
- January 25th, 2027
- and February 22
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September 2026 to spring 2027 - various dates
Hello Trees - FLEET: UBC artist in residence Pippa Lattey
- September 1-18th
- October 4-9th
- November 27th - December 31st
- February 16-28th, 2027
Pippa: "I am researching trees on UBC's campus: familiar trees that connect us to place and time, and offer insights into local climates and ecosystems. Beginning with the recent campus tree inventory, I will expand my research into shared tree walks and whittling sessions." Details to come about open studio times - and a sound walk with the trees! Watch Pippa's instagram for updates.
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*** September 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16th - Fibre Garden (only)
Flax harvest and processing days - kick off to Slow Fashion Season
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*** Every Thursday September 17th - November 27th, 12-1:30pm
Ears + Hands: The Fibres and Textiles Workroom Series with Deb Chachra
Inspired by the lectores, brought into cigar factories by workers to read to them as they worked, this informal, experimental series gives participants a place to do handwork while simultaneously learning about the larger social and technological context of fibres and textiles. Sessions will include readings and informal talks on a range of topics.
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*** September 18th
Fibre Garden Illustrator in Residence Camila Szefler plein air drawing workshop
Camila will be doing illustrative documentation at various times in the fibre garden (flax, fireweed, nettle and more), from their seasonal changes to their various materiality processes, documenting live and in person - coordinated with the garden stewards. Watch for workshop registration details on Camila & the Fibre Garden's instagram pages.
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*** October 3rd
Nature’s materials: From sustainable textiles to paving human healing community symposium
A collaboration with the School of Biomedical Engineering and Gabrielle Lam, PhD
A community-based symposium that weaves together interdisciplinary themes on the healing properties of Indigenous plants, sustainable fiber-based textiles, and naturally-derived biomaterials for applications in drug delivery and bioprinting. By connecting the research and education in School of Biomedical Engineering's Gordon B. Shrum building and its adjacent Fibre Garden on the UBC Vancouver campus, the event brings the community together through a guided walk and series of hands-on workshops. Details to come.
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*** October 29th starting at 2pm (1 hr seminar, 2 hr optional workshop)
g’ROUND: Sorting Textile Waste - Amanda White and Lois Klassen
In this workshop we will explore textile waste issues and share creative strategies for addressing the problems in local and global contexts. This will include sharing information on basic sorting and identifying fabrics, and strategies for how to create a home-based textile management system. Participants are invited to participate in creating and stuffing a textile form, made from textile waste, that can serve as a textile waste collection container, as well as a meditation cushion. Participants may choose to create their own or cut kits for future FLEET Studios use. The workshop will be approximately 1hr. After a short break there will be a hands-on making session for those who wish to stay to make a container/cushion (up to 2 additional hours).
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BIOS: (ordered in chronological order according to program date above)
Dirty Dishes Collective (DDC)
The Dirty Dishes Collective (DDC) is a curatorial, artistic, and publishing duo formed by dani neira and Cassia Powell. Inspired by the piles of dishes that remain after gathering, the DDC centers friendship, collaboration, and knowledge sharing as queer methodologies. Their community-engaged projects include exhibitions, workshops, zine libraries, publications, and dinner parties. DDC has curated exhibitions and programming with Artspeak, UNIT/PITT, Crummy Gallery, Flux Media Gallery, and Whippersnapper Gallery.
The DDC’s small press project (ddc press) publishes zines, artist books, and printed matter with a focus on formal and conceptual experimentation, research-based projects, and queer narratives.
DDC was founded in 2022, and is currently based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, also known as Vancouver, BC.
Alison Ariss and Vancouver Island Fibreshed
Alison is a PhD candidate in art history, a UBC Public Humanities Hub Graduate Fellow, and the Slow Fashion Cluster manager. She is focused on Indigenous textiles, museum studies and public art. As a settler-scholar, her research centres Coast Salish knowledge to understand public installations of Salish weaving. Alison has volunteered with MOA for The Fabric of Our Land exhibition; held a curatorial internship at the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery; documented Salish weavings in public and private collections with the Coqualeetza Cultural Education Centre; collaborated on the book, The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog and was as a humanities advisor with the Burke Museum for Woven in Wool: The Rebirth of Traditional Coast Salish Regalia. Alison is grateful to have learned with expert Salish weavers Chepximiya Siyam’ Hereditary Chief Janice George and Skwetsimeltxw (Buddy) Joseph, Debra qwasen Sparrow, Frieda George, and Dr. Susan sa’hLa mitSa Pavel.
Socials: @slowfashionseason, www.slowfashion.ubc.ca, @vanislefibreshed
Publications: Anna Hunter's book, The True Cost of Wool: A Vision for Revitalizing the Canadian Industry, https://www.longwayhomestead.com/books/p/pre-order-true-cost-of-wool. And, Leslie Tepper, Janice George and Willard Joseph, Salish Blankets: Robes of Protection, and Transformation, Symbols of Wealth (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017), https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803296923/salish-blankets/.
Rita Point Kompst
Rita was born and raised in Musqueam. Her late Father, Joe Becker, a former Chief was a carver and a fisherman. Rita grew up sanding, staining and polishing her his carvings. Rita started cedar weaving once her Father passed as per her Cultural teachings to work with her hands for a year. She experienced several personal losses over the next 7 years and continued weaving on her healing journey. Her mentor, Todd Devries, A Haida Weaver, encouraged her to begin teaching cedar weaving. She now teaches full-time. Rita attended a natural dye workshop several years ago in her community and knew instantly that she had to learn this craft. She had a partner for the first couple of years but now teaches natural dyeing and basic weaving full time, mainly at educational facilities of all levels as well as at museums, local farms and community centres. In Rita’s words “my mediums focus on connecting to where we live, work and play.”
Adriene Jenik
Adriene Jenik is an artist, educator, scholar/activist and end-of-life doula who has recently relocated from the Mojave desert to Vancouver, BC. In her work, she develops and shares creative systems and processes that support personal introspection, social critique, community building and cultural transformation. Her work has been presented at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Creative Time's SummitX in NYC, EarthX in Dallas, TX and supported through the Baltic Sea Lab, and CREATures, an EU funded research group investigating cultural production and climate change. She is Creative Producer of The Artists' Grief Deck, the Children and Youth Artists' Grief Deck, and the UNESCO supported global climate advocacy project Turn It Around! Flashcards for Education Futures. Jenik is Professor Emeritus in Expanded Arts at the School of Art and a PhD Candidate in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University.
Publications: Jenik, A. (2025] Nurturing transformative capacities: An analysis of the ECOtarot as method and practice supporting sustainability transformations, Journal of Awareness-based Systems Change (JASC), 5(1), 71-97
https://jabsc.org/index.php/jabsc/article/view/9079
Atmos Article on ECOtarot https://atmos.earth/art-and-culture/can-tarot-readings-offer-a-salve-for-climate-anxiety/
Pippa Lattey
Pippa Lattey works in sculpture, kinetic sculpture, drawing, and textiles. Her studio practice is sensitive to time and place. Her work is material based, combining craft techniques, found objects and site-specific materials. (She collects wood from fallen urban trees for woodturning and carving.) Pippa is a member of the Greater Vancouver Woodturners Guild, and the adhoc plots artist collective. She also collaborates with sound artist Thomas Evdokimoff to create wind-activated musical instruments.
Pippa creates temporary and permanent public art. Past residencies include PAVED Arts, SK (2020), The Blue Cabin (2021), FLEET Edmonds (2024-5 with adhoc plots collective), and BigCi Australia (2026). She studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design (BFA 2016), Langara College (Diploma 2013), and the University of Victoria (BSc 2003).
Publications: BigCi Australia Residency, with Eucalypus Tree and Termites
https://www.pippalattey.com/portfolio/bigci-residency/
Past residency at FLEET: Edmonds with adhoc plots, including workshops and neighbourhood walk
https://www.pippalattey.com/portfolio/adhoc-plots-fleet-edmonds/
Past collaboration with Thomas Evdokimoff, similar to the tree walk audio Pippa will be creating during her Hello Trees residency at FLEET: UBC - Sounds from the Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency - https://projects.evdokimoff.com/thebluecabin/
Camila Szefler
Camila Szefler is a Canadian-Polish visual artist with a BFA in Illustration from Emily Carr Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2022) who is a current board member of EartHand Gleaners Society, a non-profit fibreshed in Vancouver, BC.She has multidisciplinary art practice rooted in storytelling, place-based research, and community connection. Working across illustration and eco-art, her practice engages in endemic environments through relationships with plants and material processes.
Socials: @camila.sze
Publications: https://fireseason.org/ Fire Season Vol.4, out late summer 2026,
3 page spread about fireweed, including scans and illustrations of the plants multiple uses (ie. thread and dye) and how to process the plant to make cordage for weaving or braiding. The pages themselves are linked here
"Visual Field Diary: Fibreshed Sampler" a zine following a 6-week workshop for EartHands Gleaners fibreshed non-profit society in Vancouver, BC about processing cellulose fibre plants.
Deb Chachra
Deb Chachra, PhD, is the author of How Infrastructure Works: Transforming Our Shared Systems for a Changing World (2023) and Professor of Engineering at Olin College of Engineering near Boston, Massachusetts, where she was one of the earliest faculty members. She is currently a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship at UBC. Her scholarly and research interests include infrastructure, materials, design, education (particularly engineering education), and equity and inclusion issues, and she appeared on Vox’s “FuturePerfect 2024” list of activists and thinkers working to build a more positive future. Prior to joining Olin, Dr. Chachra was a postdoctoral researcher at MIT; she holds a PhD in materials science and engineering from the University of Toronto.
Socials: debcha.org, @debcha, @debcha@saturation.social, @debcha.bsky.social
Publications: We Need More than Fewer, Better Things
Gabrielle Lam
Gabrielle Lam is an Associate Professor of Teaching at the University of British Columbia and serves as the Director, Undergraduate at the School of Biomedical Engineering. She joined UBC shortly after completing her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto in 2018, where she focused on studying and harnessing the oxygen-sensing machinery of cells to drive vascularization of injectable microtissues. In her current role, Gabrielle draws on her research and educational experience in tissue engineering, biomaterials and regenerative medicine to design new curriculum and courses. Gabrielle’s particular interests are in: 1) cross-disciplinary education to enhance student development of social responsibility and leadership skills, and 2) integrating experiential learning to scaffold self-regulated learning.
Socials: Linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-lam-4190a419a, https://www.linkedin.com/school/sbme-ubc/, https://bme.ubc.ca/
Amanda White and Lois Klassen
Amanda White and Lois Klassen have worked collaboratively as artist-researchers of textile waste since 2024. They developed g’ROUND: Processing Textile Waste Tour and Seminar for the Centre for Sustainable Curating (at Western U), and a related workshop for Seamwork Social Club Vancouver (at Emily Carr U). Lois is an independent artist, researcher, and writer. Under Light Factory Publications she has produced zines and events that offer creative interventions into textile waste disposal.Amanda is an artist, researcher, and Canada Research Chair in Sustainability, Ecological Justice, and Climate Action in Creative Practices (ECU). She leads the Living Environmental Arts and Futures (LEAF) Kitchen & Lab, a new space supporting environmentally engaged creative research and practices. Amanda and Lois are based on traditional and unceded Coast Salish Territory.
Socials: @leafkitchenlab, @thetiniestseed, @lightfactorypublications
Publications: Ecologies in Practice book and podcast: https://ecologiesinpractice.ca
Light Factory Publications https://lightfactorypublications.ca/title/meditations-on-textile-waste/
g’ROUND: Processing Textile Waste Tour and Seminar at the Centre for Sustainable Curating: https://sustainablecurating.ca/exhibitions-and-projects/cushions/
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