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To expand on the ideas behind her Solidarity Banners art installation at the East Side Freedom Library, Rachel Breen convenes a team of sewists in a performance on the grounds of the Library. Their activities will express solidarity with garment workers around the world by sewing the common clothing of garment workers in Bangladesh—the Shalwar Kameez. After an hour of sewing, the public is welcome to join the sewists inside the Library for a conversation about the relationships between garment workers’ rights and climate change and our role in addressing these issues. Snacks provided.

Rachel Breen’s work has been shown widely, both in Minnesota and across the country. Her solo exhibition, “The Price of Our Clothes,” at the Perlman Museum, Carleton was Included in the top 20, best of 2018, exhibitions in the US by Hyperallergic (December 20, 2018).  Rachel is the recipient of a Fulbright award and will be a resident scholar at the Indian Institute of Craft and Design in Jaipur Rajasthan, India in 2022. She has been awarded an artist residency at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Rachel is an inaugural recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, has received four Minnesota State Arts Board grants and a fellowship from the Walker Art Center Open Field. Rachel’s social engagement projects have been presented across the state including two projects commissioned for Northern Spark, a public art festival addressing climate change in Minnesota. Rachel holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and a BA from The Evergreen State College.  She lives in Minneapolis, MN, maintains an active studio practice and is a professor of art at Anoka Ramsey Community College.