Reciprocity
Every exchange should leave knowledge, relationships and living systems more supported than we found them.
Who we are
A network for making differently.
Align the Fibers is a nonprofit collaborative network integrating ecology and sustainable agricultural practices with the visual and performing arts.
A note from the founder
Begin with what the material can teach.
Precious Jennings grew up in Iowa within four generations of self-made farmers, learning to sew, knit, tend gardens and repair what needed fixing. That practical inheritance now meets a decades-long performance practice shaped by movement, history and place.
Her work with American-grown fibers and indigo widened a central question: how might artists and growers share tools, knowledge and responsibility while creating something neither discipline could make alone?
Align the Fibers formed around that question. It is an invitation to work across boundaries, notice the full production cycle and create structures where industry, ecology and art can happen in concert.
What holds the work
Values practiced, not posted.
We use these commitments to shape collaborations, field days, performances, documentation and the way resources move.
Whole-process thinking
We trace materials, labor and impact from field to finished form instead of isolating a single outcome.
Place-based learning
We listen to land, history and local practitioners before deciding what a project needs to become.
Open exchange
We document what we learn and create accessible entry points for people with different forms of expertise.
People & stewardship
A small team with an expansive network.
Artists, growers, fabricators, researchers, organizers and neighbors enter the work through each project.
Precious Jennings
Founder & artistic director
Interdisciplinary artist, grower, educator and fiber researcher based in Charleston.Megan Ruble
Board leadership
Operations and account-management experience supporting long-term organizational thinking.Rob Darby
Board leadership
Attorney and Charleston-area community advocate bringing legal and nonprofit experience.How the thread travels
Built through inquiry, not a fixed formula.
- Roots
Art and agriculture
A family farming inheritance meets site-specific performance, textile practice and natural color.
- Research
American-grown fiber
Tool-building and field research reveal gaps—and possibilities—within whole-plant processing.
- Place
Indigo in the Lowcountry
Growing and processing indigo opens deeper work around ecology, history and community knowledge.
- Network
Collective infrastructure
Align the Fibers creates a home for collaborations that need time, land, tools and shared learning.