How can textile traditions, natural materials, and community participation inspire new models for creative hubs?
That question brought together FarmLab, a rural creative hub in Southeast Austria, and Lottozero, a textile innovation centre based in Prato, Italy, for a five-day peer-learning exchange that built on an earlier staff mobility between the two organisations.
While FarmLab explores the intersection of craft, agriculture, and community life, Lottozero is expanding its activities beyond its urban laboratory through the development of a new rural initiative. The exchange offered an opportunity to connect these complementary contexts, exploring how local fibres, natural dyes, and collaborative learning can strengthen more resilient and sustainable creative ecosystems.
Learning through practice
Throughout the week, peer learning unfolded through a combination of practical workshops, field visits, strategic discussions, and public engagement.
Federica Valli, Lottozero's Lab Manager, immersed herself in FarmLab's daily activities, gaining first-hand insight into how the hub integrates artistic production, agriculture, education, and community participation within a single ecosystem. The exchange provided valuable inspiration for Lottozero's emerging rural hub, particularly in relation to organisational models, multidisciplinary programming, and community-centred approaches to textile practice.
A central part of the exchange took place within an ongoing fashion workshop involving Ukrainian refugees, organised in collaboration with Caritas and DesignLabGive. Here, Federica introduced tufting techniques while exchanging knowledge with participants from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds, demonstrating how craft can become a shared language for learning and inclusion.
The program also explored natural fibres, indigo cultivation, rustic wool, and experimental textile practices. Together, the participants reactivated indigo dye vats, discussed flax and indigo as potential regional crops, experimented with children's workshop formats, and examined FarmLab's research into root-grown textiles. Visits and demonstrations—including a workshop on Tech Ukiyo-e, which combines traditional Japanese printmaking with digital fabrication—highlighted how heritage crafts and contemporary technologies can reinforce one another rather than compete.
Alongside the practical activities, both organisations dedicated time to reflecting on residency models, educational programmes, and the role of creative hubs in supporting sustainable local development. These conversations built on the relationship established during FarmLab's previous visit to Prato and helped shape a shared vision for future collaboration.
The exchange concluded with FarmLab Open Day, where local residents, artists, educators, and regional stakeholders explored the week's themes through tufting, natural indigo dyeing, textile upcycling, root-grown textile experiments, wet felting, Raku ceramics, and digital craft demonstrations. The event transformed the exchange into a public learning experience, connecting international expertise with local communities.
Weaving a long-term partnership
Beyond the practical skills exchanged, the mobility demonstrated how two creative hubs working in very different contexts can address common challenges through peer learning. FarmLab gained fresh perspectives on textile innovation and community-based learning, while Lottozero acquired practical knowledge that will directly inform the development of its future rural hub, particularly around natural dye cultivation, agricultural practices, and participatory programming.
The exchange also highlighted that innovation can emerge from local resources and traditional knowledge as much as from new technologies. Across both organisations, textiles became a vehicle for environmental awareness, intercultural dialogue, education, and community building.
Building on this shared vision, FarmLab and Lottozero have committed to continuing their collaboration through future exchanges, artist residencies, educational initiatives, and European cooperation projects. More than a transfer of knowledge, the exchange established a lasting partnership grounded in sustainability, experimentation, and the belief that creative hubs can weave stronger communities by connecting people, materials, and place.
