When the Eaton Fire tore through Pasadena, Ernest Batchelder's century-old tiles were often the only fragments that survived. Now Folk Lounge founder Shagho is leading three workshops at Pasadena Heritage exploring Batchelder's legacy and his 1901 question: why did we stop embedding beauty into everyday objects? Made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division. The Pasadena Weekly profiles her work connecting the tile master's nature-inspired patterns to local archives and cultural preservation.

In this conversation, Shagho explores cultural sustainability—the idea that culture functions as a fourth pillar alongside environment, economy, and society in sustainable development. She discusses her approach to designing cultural programs for institutions, and why textiles offer a vessel into intangible heritage that holds the capacity for joy and connection.

PASADENA, CA — Folk Lounge, in collaboration with Pasadena Heritage, is thrilled to announce a three-part workshop series exploring the ornamental legacy of Ernest Batchelder through hands-on creative practice, community engagement, and local ecological connection. Made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division. Led by artist and cultural sustainability practitioner Shagho, this series emerges from deep archival research and years of community-based embroidery practice.

What began informally in February 2023 as archival research of design patterns became Folk Lounge monthly park gatherings in March 2024, evolving from meet-ups into a fuller practice that includes workshops, archival research collaborations, and programming with cultural institutions. Shagho believes in the power of collective making to weave new connections between past wisdom and future possibility. In this conversation, she traces the origins of Folk Lounge from a spontaneous encounter at LA's Ararat Eskijian Museum to the circles of stitchers now gathering regularly across Los Angeles.

Kristine Schomaker knows what it's like to build authentic creative community—she's been connecting artists through Shoebox Arts (website | instagram) for over 15 years, helping 500+ artists transform their careers. When she invited Folk Lounge founder Shagane Barsegian into one of her community conversations, we thought we'd discuss intergenerational craft circles and community building. Instead, they unraveled everything about creative shame, what happens when ancestral calls disrupt your tech career, and why loving yourself when you're not useful to capitalism might be the most revolutionary practice of all. The conversation covers unemployment as spiritual boot camp, the brutal UX of government systems, dance as healing for parts therapy can't reach, and why the ceiling of your genius depends on how low you're willing to go. If you've ever been ashamed of your messy, non-linear creative process, this conversation is medicine.