The Making of Edith Heath: Philosophies
Join book editors Jennifer M. Volland and Chris Marino, designer Derek Barnett of Information Office, Heath Foundation trustee Jay Stewart, and author and researcher Rosa Novak for a discussion centered around the making of the forthcoming Environmental Design Archive publication Edith Heath: Philosophies (Berkeley Design Books and Information Office, November 2020).
About Edith Heath: Philosophies: Featuring 18 essays over 320 pages with more than 300 images from the Brian and Edith Heath/Heath Ceramics Collection held by the Environmental Design Archives, the book explores the philosophical foundations and influences of one of the most significant creative forces in post-WWII America. Click here for more information on the book.
Panelist Bios:
Derek Barnett is the Principal of Information Office, an art book publisher and design practice based in Vancouver, Canada, established in 2006. As a designer, publisher, and editor, Derek leads an approach based on an emphasis between curation and design.
Chris Marino is the Curator of the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley and Berkeley Design Books Editor, directing a full archival program for architecture, landscape architecture, and planning collections. Previously, she served as Reference and Outreach Archivist at the EDA, and as a Project Archivist at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Architecture & Design Collection at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum. Marino received her Master of Library and Information Science with an Archival Studies specialization from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego.
Rosa Novak is a researcher for the Brian and Edith Heath Foundation and co-founder of the Oakland, California artist collective, Mutual Stores. She recently authored three essays and co-authored two visual histories for the upcoming publication, Edith Heath: Philosophies, the first in the Environmental Design Archives’ newly re-introduced Berkeley Design Books series. Novak’s current research interests focus on the life and work of Edith Heath, the history of the ceramic materials of California, and the relationship between waste material and constructive material.
Jay Stewart is the Trustee of the Brian and Edith Heath Foundation. She knew the Heaths from the time of her birth to their deaths; at their request, she assisted with their personal affairs in their later years. Since Edith Heath’s death in 2005, Stewart has devolved the Heaths’ estate, placing their extensive archives at the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley and assembling a study collection of Heath Ceramics’ products. With her husband, Peter Macnair, Stewart is a peripatetic curator, consulting on the material culture and ethnology of First Nations of the Northwest Coast.
Jennifer M. Volland is an independent curator and writer based in Southern California. Since 2014, she has been researching the life of ceramicist Edith Heath; in addition to her editorial role on Edith Heath: Philosophies, she served as the consulting producer on the award-winning documentary Heath Ceramics: The Making of a California Classic (KCET Artbound, 2019) and is the consulting curator on Edith Heath: A Life in Clay (Oakland Museum of California, 2021). Her past projects include Cabin Fever (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2018), Frank Bros.: The Store That Modernized Modern (University Art Museum at CSULB, 2017), and Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2013). She received her Master of Arts in Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles.