The events will feature a UC Berkeley chemistry professor, textile activists, and even an exhibit produced by textile-art students from the California College of the Arts, bringing a variety of perspectives to the table as a reflection of the diverse community formed around the plants. "We wanted to make it more of a festival per se, celebrating this stuff, rather than just a static and distant exhibit," Natarajan said.

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As an award-winning textile artist and longtime professor at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, Berkeley resident Lia Cook admits to a slight bias about the importance of craft to a person's emotional well-being.
"We're a visually oriented culture, one in which other senses aren't emphasized," she says. "But using your hands to make something is part of what it means to be human."

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Most new independent designers struggle for years to distinguish themselves from the pack. But Brook Lane and Kirby McKenzie’s debut line of natural indigo dyed bags and scarves was met with unexpectedly quick success. Though their label, Job & Boss, is just shy of a year old, it has already been snapped up by four Bay Area boutiques, including Gravel & Gold and Accident & Artifact.

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Bean Gilsdorf (MFA 2011) never imagined herself as a professional advice columnist. But in a moment of levity at an editorial meeting of the art blog Daily Serving, she tossed out the idea of an art advice column, and the others wouldn't let it drop.

And once she launched the thing, it really took off. She posted her first "Help Desk" column in January 2012, and it was almost immediately picked up by KQED.org and the Huffington Post.

What have been the most memorable questions? "One was, 'I just discovered that my MFA faculty advisor is an adulterer. I find that morally reprehensible. Should I continue to trust him in our student-advisor relationship?'"

This dilemma can't be reduced to yet another case of people not living up to expectations, Gilsdorf explains, since your advisor is your designated critic-advocate, and the nuances of the trust and the power dynamic are quite specific. In other words, Dear Abby can't deal with this one. You really need the advice of another artist.

What's been the strangest question so far? "'What is the best and most humane way to skin a cat as part of an art piece, in front of an audience'’ I wrote the guy back privately and told him I wasn't qualified to give an answer."