Mari Hulick grew up in Detroit.
She received a degree in History (with a minor in Philosophy) from the University of Michigan. With that degree and a lot of luck, she was able to apprentice in print shops in Chicago, finally becoming an assistant journeyman in the Graphic Artist's Guild. On a whim (and in the middle of a divorce), she took an art class.
After receiving her MFA from Northwestern University, she began her teaching career at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She then left the Midwest to teach in California (U Cal at Santa Barbara and then UCLA). She fled Los Angles in 2000 for France, ultimately winding up in New York where she taught at Parsons School of Design.
She is currently Associate Professor of Communication Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art. She is still not quite sure how this has happened.
Involvement in community and education has been at the core of Mari's life. She has worked successfully with groups as varied as graduate students in New York to "kids at risk" in South-Central LA, all the way to a group of blind students creating sculptures in Santa Monica.
Her most recent projects, The Collaborative Campus, and Legacy are centered on realizing her life's dreams; to use design tools and training to help people create real change in their communities.
When she grows up, she still wants to be a dancer.