Upcoming Exhibitions

a closeup of an amber and yellow toned, plant fiber based paper-like material, illuminated from behind. A complex pattern of overlapping fibers and uneven translucency emerges as light penetrates through an uneven thickness of highly textured material — Surface detail. Paperlike material produced by womens' cooperatives. Images courtesy of Birnur Temel Birtane, MILKist Social Design Center.

Soil to Surface

September 24–November 1, 2026

Soil to Surface highlights the creations of small-scale women farmers, women’s cooperatives, and internationally recognized designers from Türkiye, alongside the work of School of Art and Design students, faculty, and alumni at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Proposing an alternative framework where farmers, craftspeople, and designers operate on equal ground, the exhibition sees the FIT community actively reimagining these materials for contemporary design through technical experimentation and innovative thinking.

Agricultural waste and local textile materials are repositioned in a contemporary context, allowing multiple narratives to emerge across time and geographies, while creating new paths for creative businesses to be local, sustainable, and value-driven.

a collage of images in documenting artisans in a process of creating a solid paper-like surface from plant based materials. Plant matter is collected, dried, then soaked, and processed to create pulp, which results in amber colored textured material, which is then sewn together to create a lampshade. — Womens' cooperatives in a process of creating a plant based paperlike material, and a STUDIO BIRTANE lampshade made using that material. Images courtesy of Birnur Temel Birtane, MILKist Social Design Center.

Central to this process are women farmers and women’s cooperatives in Türkiye, whose knowledge, labor, creativity, and lived experience have transformed agricultural byproducts into new material possibilities. Their relationship with the land has been cultivated across generations. Working with pomegranate peels, walnut husks, nettle leaves, onion skins, bay leaves, and barley straw, they transform these materials into plant-based dyes, paperlike surfaces, and handcrafted embellishments. Each woman comes from a different geography and works with distinct agricultural resources, carrying stories, memories, and material knowledge that continue to shape contemporary design. Together, the 26 women embody a living archive of knowledge and practices rooted across five regions of Türkiye. Each contributes a distinct form of expertise to a shared material journey, uniting farmers, natural dyers, cooperative members, material specialists, and textile and fashion designers, and artists as equal contributors to a shared process of transformation.

Beyond bringing the land’s colors into design via natural dyes, this project goes further by creating the surface, form, and structure itself from barley straw, an agricultural residue. In doing so, these materials become potential secondary raw materials capable of generating new economic, creative, and educational opportunities.

By integrating agricultural production with artistic practice, Soil to Surface challenges conventional hierarchies and suggests a more inclusive and socially just model for creative collaboration.

a collage of images showing raw materials in handfuls - dried red onion peels - pomegranate peels. Pigments are added to water based paints, and the resulting colors are tested on paper. — Color tests of dyes resulting from processed raw materials. Images courtesy of Birnur Temel Birtane, MILKist Social Design Center.

Soil to Surface is realized through a collaboration between MILKist Social Design Center and FIT, and presented as part of the “Second Harvest” project, developed in partnership with Anadolu Efes and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Türkiye.