Sustainable design company Contexture was recognized at this week's 2008 Design Exchange Awards for its handmade hanging mobile, As the Crow Flies, a dangling family of laser-cut crows.

Crafted from 30% post-recycled paper and found roadmaps, the mobile landed top honors in the Industrial Design category. It's also likely to be a popular gift among the I-don't-want-a-nursery-full-of-pink-puppies parenting set.

The mobile retails for just $49 (free shipping!) and is available through Contexture, the Vancouver-based partnership of Nathan Lee and Trevor Coghill, already well known for their reclaimed-material Coffee Cuffs and 45 iPod Cases.

Starting December 3, Moss will present Studio Job's latest collection, Bavaria, at this year's Design Miami. Bavaria is the collection of marquetry furnishings, crafted from Indian Rosewood and featuring laser-cut inlays of various country images: barns, horse corrals, silos, farm animals.

The group of pieces is the juxtaposition of age-old marquetry, which cuts veneer in intricate patterns to be placed on furniture or other objects, and modern laser-cutting technique. The sought-after furniture has been produced in a limited edition of six pieces per model, exclusive to Moss. The Rosewood bench, above, will be available through Moss, price upon request.

Studio Job was last in the news at Christie's Post-war and Contemporary Art sale, where an ebony and laser-cut maple bench from its Perished Collection reached a final price of over $95,000. The auction house said the piece "yield[ed] an expressionistic symbolism superimposed upon an absurdist, semifunctional monumentalism."

Exactly.

In the wake of MOCA's public outcry for help, Eli Broad has stepped up to offer $30 million to the museum. Earlier this month, Deidre Woollard reported that Broad (above with his wife Edythe) might have been planning a contemporary art museum of his own in Beverly Hills, after an acquisition spree that included pieces by Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha and Robert Rauschenberg.

Perhaps he's refocused his efforts towards saving a contemporary art museum instead. I wrote recently about art critic Christopher's Knight's open letter to MOCA's board, ordering it to raise $25 million pronto. Looks like Broad got the memo -- though in his statement of intent in the LA Times, he urges his fellow philanthropists to take part.

"This is not a one-philanthropist town," he writes, though in the contemporary art world, the Broad name is growing awfully familiar.

Whole Foods stores in Portland and Seattle recently participated in Community Giving Day, agreeing to donate 5% of the day's sales to Farm Aid, a non-profit org that supports local farmers.

The total came to $30,000, money which will help farmers produce and market their food.

"We appreciate [Whole Foods] customers who value family farmers and the food that only they can grow," said Carolyn Mugar , Farm Aid's executive director, in a press release.

It girl Alexa Chung has teamed with Ctrl.Alt.Shift and Vice mag to host a photo contest that will raise awareness about issues of gender, poverty and injustice around the world that will become a striking online photo essay.

The deadline closed yesterday, so a selection of photos is up on Ctrl.Alt.Shift -- check them out and vote for your favorite. The winners will receive mentorships with professional photogs -- an esteemed group including Nan Goldin, Alex Sturrock and Chung herself -- and the support to continue exposing injustice through their own unique lens.

In an effort to give back in troubled times, Wal-Mart has just announced it will donate 90 million pounds of fresh food to America's biggest anti-hunger org, Feeding America.

The company won't seek a tax deduction for the gift and intends to increase its annual giving to 3 billion pounds of food over the next few years.

Their donation this year is the equivalent of 70 million meals, at a time when food banks have reported a 20% increase in demand.

And Wal-Mart isn't just providing food. Because it's donated protein and produce, unlike the canned goods and bags of rice you expect at the local food bank, Wal-Mart has also donated $2.5 million to buy freezer trucks and help prepare for new food storage challenges.

It's a nice start to the season of giving.

In an open letter to the board of trustees at Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times is hardly circumspect about his message: give money, and give a lot of it.

MOCA's endowment is rumored to have fallen a startling $40 million or so in the past several years, and the museum has publicly contemplated renting or even selling its significant collection of art, functioning merely as an exhibit space in the future.

It's also mentioned folding in to LACMA, making the city of LA -- population nearing 4 million -- a one-museum town (yes, the Getty is nearby, as is the Norton Simon, but neither of those specialize in contemporary art nor are they geographically LA proper).

Mr. Knight urges board members to gather together and "stay in that room until you have cobbled together at least $25 million." Interestingly, that was the amount Mercedes Bass gave to the Metropolitan Opera two years ago after it announced its own financial woes. "It's really the duty of a board member to support the institution in a time of need," she told The New York Times.

I'm sure Mr. Knight and art lovers everywhere hope MOCA's board will remember those words.

RxArt held its big bash/silent auction at the Milk Gallery in Chelsea earlier this week, drawing a crowd that took its time bidding but ended up supporting the non-profit group to the tune of $350,000. RxArt installs art exhibits in children's hospitals to relieve stress and create inspiring environments.

Founded in 2000 by well-known gallerist Diane Brown (at right with board member Cynthia Rowley), the non-profit tries to de-institutionalize hospital spaces with original art, usually colorful exhibits by artists like William Wegman and Frank Stella that stretch across every wall and ceiling possible.

The group produces coloring books for patients drawn from every installation, so kids can focus on emotional healing while docs aim to do the rest.

Tuesday night designer Jason Wu presented his ladylike Spring collection at L.A.'s Satine Boutique, the one West coast spot to score exclusive designs from Wu.

Co-hosted by Lucy Liu and MySpace Fashion, the evening teemed with Wu fans including Kate Mara (at right with the designer), January Jones, Erica Christensen, Rachel Zoe and China Chow -- a host of chic stylesetters eager to praise the young designer.

And no wonder -- Wu explained to us where his inspiration comes from: "I love working with young actresses who are just on the verge. It's always good to have a muse."

Jason Wu is a CFDA finalist whose collection can be found at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, and of course Satine.

Puppy love is in the air. It's in the White House (or will be soon enough), it's on the big screen, and now it's online in the new original series from Sex & the City writer-producer Amy B. Harris.

Hosted by Lexus's just-launched L Studio, home to original films, interviews and musings on everything from high heels to desk design, Puppy Love is all about New Yorkers and their dogs -- dogs who might be gay, dogs who warrant more attention than their owners, dogs as stand-in boyfriends (in Famke Janssen's case, a boyfriend who doesn't let a real man get in the way).

Actors including Janssen, Ally Sheedy and Janel Moloney jumped to be part of the series once they heard Lexus would donate $50,000 to the ASPCA on their behalf.
In fact all the actors, writers and directors on the show donated their time to the project in support of the ASPCA.

I chatted with the show's creator, Amy B. Harris, about developing the show and working with her dog, Oscar, shown above.

How did you come to collaborate with L Studio on Puppy Love?
I thought the series would work best on the web, as it's a shorter form of storytelling. [Each episode hovers around the 10 minute mark.] L Studio was very generous with its donation to the ASPCA, and everyone said they loved working on the project, even the crew who loved their dogs, and my production partner who had just lost her dog and was excited to express her puppy love.

How has it been different to work on the web as opposed to television or the big screen?
I'm still trying to figure it out -- the medium is very interesting for me. I explain it by saying, there's no opening weekend. In film, you know exactly what the numbers are. With the web, people can find it whenever they want to, and I'm adjusting to that thought process. I kind of love it.

New York featured so prominently in Sex & the City. Does it do so again in Puppy Love?
I could have shot either in New York or LA, but it was very important for me to do it here. It's surprising in a place with no backyards that so many people have dogs. The city can become very anonymous, but having a dog, suddenly you know people by their first names. When I first got Oscar [who stars in two webisodes and is pictured above], I didn't speak to one neighbor. Now everyone's coming to talk to us when I'm walking him in my pajamas.

New episodes in the 10-part series are added to the site each Tuesday. And the finale? That's when we'll see Heidi Klum and her pup in a mockumentary of New York fashion week -- for dogs. Be sure to watch straight through to the end of every webisode -- one of the best parts of the series is the When Harry Met Sally-like post-show interviews asking the actors how they fell in love with their dogs.

Moncler, the Franco-Italian luxury outerwear brand known for its sleek puffers and fashion-forward parkas, is finally slated to open its first freestanding boutique in the U.S.

The Aspen-based flagship will resemble a modern ski chalet, according to Fashion Week Daily, and is set to open November 28 -- just in time for Thanksgiving weekend skiers...and shoppers.

The jacket shown at right is currently available at Bergdorf Goodman for $1,075.

[via Fashion Week Daily]

The Gates Foundation has announced it will spend several hundred million dollars over the next five years in an effort to double the current number of low-income students who graduate from college, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

On Tuesday at A Forum for Education in America, Bill Gates told guests, "According to our data, the number of low income and minority students graduating college ready today is 22 percent, and that figure is increasing far too slowly. It's unacceptable. We need to do better."

The Foundation will spend approximately $3 billion across all its education initiatives this year alone, including plans to reduce the dropout rate at the high school level and provide more teacher support. Experts suggest that with the failing economy, federal and state agencies with less and less to spend could start collaborating with the Foundation to improve education in America.

Famed fashion photographer Steven Meisel has shot for all the biggies: American Vogue, Italian Vogue, W, as well as fashion campaigns for Prada, Calvin Klein, Versace. He's now collaborated with Art + Commerce to release a limited edition jigsaw puzzle featuring Meghan Collison as pin-up from his shoot for Italian Vogue.

Each 1000-piece puzzle is signed and numbered by Meisel and comes in a custom cloth box. Only 1000 were produced, and they're available through Art + Commerce or at Barneys NY, Colette or 10 Corso Como, Milan. Each puzzle is $750.

According to a study conducted by British private bank Coutts, donors who gave more than £1 million last year gave overwhelmingly to universities.

45 gifts above the million pound mark went to academic institutions, totaling about £295.5 in donations -- more than three times than what went toward health concerns or international development, the second and third most popular causes, respectively.

The trend is hardly exclusive to the UK. Just last week University of Chicago b-school alum David Booth gave one of the largest gifts ever made to an American university -- $300 million. Welcome to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

[Thanks Ben!]

In anticipation of record-breaking crowds (think everyone at Grant Park bringing +1s), Expedia has created an Inaugural Page to help travelers facilitate their visit to the nation's capital.

The January 20th inauguration of Barack Obama as President is expected to draw so many visitors to DC that travelers will need to seek out hotels in nearby suburbs like Bethesda, Maryland.

Expedia offers a number of tips from local experts on getting there and where to stay--any hotel close to the Metro.