Materials, Sustainability and Clothes
Creative responses to labor solidarity, climate crisis, and what we wear

Artist Rachel Breen will speak about the relationship between labor rights, the global garment industry and climate change as well as her creative responses to these challenges. A large part of Breen’s work combines a social justice lens, with research about textiles and listening to activists in the global south. In particular, she’ll share about her research conducted during her Fulbright in India last year.

Through acts of sewing and dismantling, RACHEL BREEN creates projects and spaces for cultivating deeper understandings of labor rights and solidarity. Her work has been shown widely across the country, including a solo exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2020. Her solo exhibition, The Price of Our Clothes, at the Perlman Museum, was included in Hyperallergic’s 2018 Top 20 Exhibitions Across the US (December 20, 2018). Rachel was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to India in 2022 and was 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.