Join artist Adam Cooley and learn the art of batik! You'll create a piece of art to take home and help contribute to future public art piece that will be displayed at Brentwood Park.
Workshop participants will learn batik, a wax resist technique. They'll apply melted wax to cotton cloth, then brush dye over it. The wax blocks the dye where it covers, leaving patterns in the cloth. Hot wax will be used at supervised stations. Each person will leave with their own piece of waxed and dyed cloth, along with simple instructions for finishing it at home.
This workshop is for adults, age 18 and up. It's limited to 6 participants and costs $5. Participants will be working with hot wax and should plan to wear clothing that they are okay to get dye on.
About the Artist
Adam Cooley is a Durham-based visual artist whose practice spans textile art, painting, illustration, sculpture, and costume, developed over decades of exhibiting internationally. A self-taught artist working in the outsider tradition, he is known for layered symbolism, folkloric imagery, and technical ambition across materials and scale.
Adam was selected as a SEEK Raleigh artist for 2027. His project, Boro Fence, will extend his ongoing Boro Land series into a public, participatory form, to be installed at Raleigh's Brentwood Park. Boro is a centuries old Japanese tradition of mending worn cloth so nothing is wasted. Rather than build a finished piece alone in the studio, Adam is leading a series of public fiber workshops and inviting Raleigh residents to mend and patch their own small pieces of cloth. These contributions will be combined into a future public art piece.
Learn more about Adam
Learn more about SEEK Raleigh