Learn how to use natural dyes with the Refugee Collective!

Join the Refugee Collective and the Elisabet Ney Museum for a hands-on natural dye workshop as part of the Naturalist at the Ney series. Using onion skin food waste, we'll dye Texas organic cotton bandanas sewn by tRC Studio a lovely shade of yellow while exploring shared values of textile craft, sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and native plants. While our dyes simmer, participants will enjoy a guided landscape tour of the Ney grounds and support light weeding and care of the site. Come learn, make, and tend, connecting fiber, land, and community. Participants will receive one bandana (limited quantities ).

In April, we kick off our new digital guide! As the museum honors the past and moves into the 21st century, a new free guide created through Bloomberg Connects has been created to share the joy of Formosa and the historic grounds. Bloomberg Connects is a free digital guide to hundreds of cultural organizations around the world that makes it easy to access and engage with arts and culture from mobile devices, anytime, anywhere. Participating organizations include botanical gardens, historic houses, outdoor sculpture parks, and world-class museums….like the Elisabet Ney Museum. Download this free app on your phone and learn more about the museum’s historic dam through engaging audio or study the fun plant archive the guide supplies. This new initiative allows the museum to share permanent and temporary exhibitions and unique features of the grounds to a new generation of audiences near and far and is available in over 40 languages through Google Translate. 

The museum's education staff will be on hand to teach visitors how to use Bloomberg Connects at all of our spring happenings. The first event to begin the new season of on-site programs is going to be our Naturalists at the Ney: Natural Dying Workshop from 10 am to noon on Saturday, April 4, 2026. The Refugee Collective will join us for this hands-on natural dye demonstration using onion skin food waste. We are going to transform organic cotton bandanas sewn by The Refugee Collective Studio to a lovely shade of yellow while exploring the shared values of textile craft, sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and native plants. While our dyes simmer, participants will enjoy a guided landscape tour of the Ney grounds and support light weeding and care of the site. This is a great opportunity to learn more about working with natural dyes while also connecting to Elisabet Ney's story through the new storytelling platform in Bloomberg Connects.