Grantee: Jáiz Boyd of Birds in the Coast

Jáiz Boyd, the Spokane-based artist and designer behind Birds in the Coast, is launching The Nu Syllabus: A Black Ivy Reclamation, a large-scale narrative fashion installation featuring 40 bespoke garments constructed from reclaimed materials. With support from SAGA, the project will draw from local thrift stores and secondhand markets for garments and materials. Boyd and local artists will deconstruct and reconstruct these materials into new forms, blending mid-century Ivy League aesthetics with Afro-Indigenous heritage and contemporary streetwear influences. Funding will support artist labor, materials, equipment, and documentation, ensuring the work is created and shared within the local community.

The Nu Syllabus positions fashion as both cultural critique and community engagement, addressing gaps in Spokane’s arts landscape around narrative high fashion and representation in high-art spaces. By centering sustainability and a localized circular economy, the project redirects textile waste while demonstrating accessible pathways into creative practice. The final exhibition will invite the public to engage directly with the garments and their stories and learn about the history of the Black Ivy movement in an exploration of identity, labor, and self-definition. Building on prior work producing collaborative arts events and partnerships, this project expands Boyd’s practice from brand-building into a broader, place-based cultural statement about value, visibility, and creative agency.