My Bio

Janette Knowles, Ph.D., is chair of the Art and Design Program at Ohio Dominican University as well as Director of Wehrle Gallery. She received a BA from Kent State University in Art History and the Anthropology of Art. She received her MA in Art History and her Ph.D. in Art Education from the Ohio
State University where she wrote about the role of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the education of women. She spent a decade working in museum education departments including The J. Paul Getty Museum, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Columbus Museum of Art. She worked in the UNESCO World Heritage Archives of the Plantin-Moretus Museum and Printing House where she studied the hand-written and printed ship manifests of the Dutch East India Company and researched the hand-painted copperplates of 16-17th century florilegia printed by the Plantin Press. Most recently she has been researching historic plant dyes for textile production and using sustainable natural dye techniques for her fiber art work and her weaving. She has been cultivating a natural dye garden for the past fifteen years and regularly gives lectures and workshops on the use of historic plant dyeing and sustainable practices in the textile studio.