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.
