Tapestry Institute

Specialties

Tapestry Institute works to create learning opportunities that integrate different ways of knowing, learning about, and responding to the natural world. Different disciplines and natural phenomena such as ecological and political systems are therefore integrated as well. We do not privilege any one way of knowing over others, but we also encourage discernment about how heavily to weigh any information in a particular situation. Different situations call for different responses, a pragmatic truism known in leadership training as «situation awareness.»

Please visit our website to explore our core philosophy, the ways we carry out our work, our current projects, and even why there’s a rug in our name and our masthead. No matter what brought you to us, we’re glad of your interest and hope you find ideas in our pages that are worth your time, thought, support, and participation.

History

Established in 1998.

Tapestry Institute has always created unique programs that use different ways of knowing, learning about and responding to the natural world. Tapestry also operates from within Indigenous, Earth-​based worldview. We have done a wide range of projects over the years, including Stories from the Circle: Science and Native Wisdom, a conference in 2002 funded by the National Science Foundation. Tapestry also created the Digital Library for Indigenous Science Resources in 2003. We have conducted research and taught about the horse-​human relationship in programs including trail riding at meetings, horse meditation at workshops at our former ranch in Nebraska and providing a home for wild Mustangs on that ranch. We conducted the first and only online survey into the horse-​human relationship and held The Voice of the Horse Conference in our continuing effort to educate about that relationship.

Meet the Business Owner

Jo B.

Business Owner

Jo Belasco, Esq. — J.D. retired attorney, B.A. in Psychology. She left the practice of law in order to help people in Western culture learn how to connect to the natural world through Indigenous worldview, a journey she experienced for herself upon first joining Tapestry in 1998. Her work focuses on ecopsychology, spiritual ecology, ecofeminism, and mindfulness. She created and developed Tapestry’s Horse-​Human Relationship Program in 2001, which has since grown into the Horse Ibachakali program of horse-​mediated mindful learning about the relationship between humans and nature. She has been an invited speaker at the WINGS Foundation «Soaring to New Heights» Conference in Denver, as well as the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo and national workshops on overcoming fear, anxiety, and PTSD in horseback riding since 2010.