By Malaika Costello-Dougherty

ARTIST AND COLLECTOR Garry Knox Bennett plops down on his felt-layered bench that's now an installation at the new San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. He and his wife, Sylvia Bennett, collect furniture like this piece – made of gray fabric piled atop a slab of maple tied down with steel straps – that challenges typical forms, and their collection became the museum's inaugural exhibit, "Dovetailing Art and Life: The Bennett Collection."

"We intentionally break down barriers," Sylvia says, "in a livable way." And so does the new museum.

The new downtown museum is different than the nearby galleries and shops. Walking through the courtyard of the renovated space feels like entering a living room – on acid. I was tempted to hang my coat on the eggplantlike coat hanger, and I encountered a demonic yellow-green dog figurine in the bathroom. The overall effect is of a delightful absurdity.

"We feel that craft is art," executive director JoAnn Edwards says, adding that the museum will focus on objects made of wood, clay, metal, glass, and other natural materials. "A lot of people don't understand. They think of craft as pot holders. Our job is to educate them. That's the whole point."

"It's overwhelming how many artists are in this area," Sylvia interjects. "And they are underserved. Small ancillary museums are so important."

Edwards was prompted to launch the museum as a reaction to the many institutions that have removed the word craft from their names, such as San Francisco's California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) and the American Craft Museum (now the American Museum of Arts and Design). The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design joins only a handful of institutions worldwide devoted to the form, including the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in Fort Mason Center.

"I called my brother and said, 'What if we start a craft museum?' " Edwards says. "And he replied, 'I was thinking about that last week.' " Edwards began fundraising right away. She raised one million dollars in a year, a large portion of which came from an anonymous private donor.

"We just wanted to embrace craft and make sure there wasn't any extinction of the medium," she says.

Edwards defines craft as "a beautiful one-of-a-kind handmade object, be it functional or nonfunctional." Most of the crafts they feature aren't your bead-and-macramé projects from camp, though some pieces do have the rustic feel and hokeyness of a wagon wheel.

Visitors seemed to have mixed reactions to the exhibit. First-time visitor Aileen Schier, an architect, says she liked the mirror with sculpted faces, but adds, "Some of it is downright bizarre. The fake Japanese painting was violent, and I was offended." Upon further reflection, she says, "It was off-putting, but it caused a reaction," and then wondered aloud if that was the point.

Like others at the exhibit, Shier describes the overall effect as "whimsical." Sylvia shudders at the word. Instead, she insists each piece has personality.

"I never get tired of looking at it," Sylvia says of the couple's collection of almost 300 pieces, including chairs, couches, slope-lined desks of wood and glass, platters, and other home furnishings, with some, such as a Sam Maloof walnut chair, worth $15,000 to $20,000. The Bennetts are considered at the top of their field in collecting, and they're known for their idiosyncratic tastes.

Garry Knox Bennett is a furniture maker who originally financed his art by manufacturing roach clips and other counterculture paraphernalia. Written on his studio is the slogan "Let your heart go with the craft god. He won't give you no bum sh-t."

The next exhibit, "Nouvelle Nuptials," will begin around Valentine's Day and focus on the wedding ceremony. And next spring there will be an exhibit called "Convergence with Furniture" from Tasmania, followed by "Pour," a wine-themed craft and design show.