09/21/2023
American Studies can take you towards incredibly rewarding community work. Dr. Lilly Marsh (Purdue 2016) did her dissertation on the emergence of knitting as a truly creative practice productive of new cultural forms and institutions in the late 20th century, and has parlayed her degree in the world of politics, business, non-profits, and small batch manufacturing in New York State. Dr Marsh moved to upstate NY post-graduation and returned to studio work in textile production, specializing in using local and regional wools for weaving into blankets, throws, small wearables, and sewing yardage for resale. In 2017, Marsh became a founding member of the Hudson Valley Textile Project, an organization of fiber farmers, processors, artisans, small batch manufacturers, and retail shops organized to identify and remedy weaknesses in the farm-to-finished object supply chain in the Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley Textile Organization filed as a non-profit organization in 2018, and Marsh became a founding board member where she continues to this day. The Project’s work has included the recurring offering of professional photography workshops and services to small farmers and business in need of high-quality photography for website development and print materials, founding a much needed small-medium batch wool scouring facility “Clean Fleece NY” in Mechanicville, NY, to process fleeces prior to spinning, and the new publication “Common Threads” to deepen the community ties between fiber producers, processors, designers and makers of all types. Marsh has been active in all aspects of the Project, including offering individual consultation to farmers wondering what their wool could be used for, and to designers looking for a local, sustainable, and ethical path for their designs to come to market.
The Textile Project has become a powerful influence in the state of New York’s emerging interest in regionally sourced, sustainably processed, and ethically manufactured farm-to-finished textile object. New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the awarding of a $8.9 million to “a consortium of six universities, businesses, farmers, fashion industry leaders, and non-profit organizations, led by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute” to create and manage New York’s new Fashion Innovation Center. “The consortium, headquartered in the Capital Region and comprised of RPI, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Hudson Valley Textile Project, Field to Fiber, SUNY Morrisville, and Made X Hudson, will conduct research to bolster the Center’s mission of building a smarter, more sustainable fashion industry.”
“My dissertation focused on how a singular creative voice generated a community of voices, of thousands of women, and men, who took back knitting from older corporate interests, and spoke in their own voices of their experience as creative makers, who created new institutions and publications, and forced change on a highly conservative hand-knitting industry. They, and Elizabeth Zimmermann, in particular, reshaped American handknitting into a creative innovative practice supporting thousands of small retail business people, fiber farmers, small spinning and carding mills, custom dyers, designers, publishers, small and mid-size manufactures for knitting, felting, weaving, and batting, and makers of all stripes. In coming to New York, I found a community of those people who were ready to take the next step---offering local fiber goods to the general, middle-class, textile consumer. The global textile market is a nightmare of inhumane, pollutive, and climate destructive practices, feeding a disposable fast-fashion consumer mentality. The New York Fashion Innovation Center isn’t going to replace that overnight by any means, but we can start to take some steps towards developing a new model for how textiles can be more ethically produced with regard to both the human and climate cost of production.”
Dr. Marsh has been further invited to be a representative to the Natural Fibers Textile Development Workgroup, a joint taskforce of NY Agriculture and Markets, and the NY Commissioner of Economic Development, reporting directly to Gov. Hochul. This workgroup will bring together representatives from agriculture, academia, fiber and textile design and manufacturing to study and identify strategies and opportunities to increase the industry’s contribution to the state economy, to increase private investment in NYS natural fiber and textile-based enterprises, to improve public knowledge about the value of natural fibers, and to increase sales opportunities for those textiles both in and out of state.
