INSTAAR's commitment to art + science partnerships helps shift the way people understand climate, ecosystems, and Earth systems; changes behavior; and deeply engages people with our science.

Experimental photography by Kelsey Simpkins explores our relationship with the invisible air surrounding us. From Airborne Era, her 2022 show in the SEEC South Gallery.
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Art+Science showcase

Art-science interactions are a core approach at INSTAAR to engage the public in our science, carrying the potential to bring our science to new audiences; pursue storytelling approaches to science; and change the way people think and act about climate change, the environment, and ecosystems. Professional artists number among INSTAAR's Affiliates, and several INSTAAR researchers are artists as well as scientists. Partnerships with campus groups like the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship and Inside the Greenhouse have facilitated student and faculty engagement in art + science practice.

Contact Shelly Sommer (INSTAAR Communication & Outreach Director) to participate in art/science partnerships, reserve gallery space in SEEC, or discuss art-science interactions.

News

An artist discusses Colorado's environmental issues with community members at a CASE exhibition.

Framing the climate conversation through art, science and community collaborations (CU Boulder Community Outreach & Engagement)

Coloradans are experiencing climate change. Residents face challenges like fires, drought and poor water and air quality. The Colorado Arts Science Environment Program’s (CASE) is addressing critical environmental and social issues across Colorado through a collaborative exhibition that brings together CU Boulder scientists and artists from various parts of the state.

Jocelyn Catterson and Holly Barnard stand in front of Catterson's large painting on display in the Colorado capitol building rotunda. They are smiling and have their arms around each others' shoulders.

The intersection of art and science workshop at Rio Grande Farm Park on Friday (Alamosa News | Valley Courier)

A 16-by-16-inch piece consisting of frozen India ink, paper and thread. Created by Colorado artist Hannah Taylor in collaboration with CU Boulder scientist Noah Molotch, the frozen ink wash papers represent a community defined by snow.

Colorado artist, CU Boulder scientist band together to spotlight Dillon Reservoir and the state’s water issues (Summit Daily)

Holly Barnard and artist Jocelyn Catterson an artwork by Catterson in the Lieutenant Governor's office at the Colorado State Capitol building.

Art and climate science converge in new exhibit at the Colorado Capitol (KUNC)

A mixed-media artwork by Jocelyn Catterson explores groundwater in the San Luis Valley, reflecting a partnership with INSTAAR Holly Barnard.

Coloradoans and our shared environment in times of challenge and change (CU OOE)

More Art+Science news

Desert Visions: Paintings by Natalie Aranda

Her acrylic and oil paintings are unified by their embrace of desert landscapes. You can see them in the SEEC 1st floor gallery, July 19th–August 23rd, 2024.

Natalie Aranda, in a Death Valley CA t-shirt, stands in front of a hallway of her paintings of deserts, from southern California to the Dry Valleys of Antarctica

From the artist: Some of the paintings were inspired by views from my parents’ yard, which resides in southern California, more desert-like than anything else. Other paintings are of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which is considered to be a polar desert. As a whole, these paintings pay homage to the impact the desert has had on my life. From the place I grew up, to the place where my current studies are focused, the desert has defined a course through my life. In each of these, the color palette is more vibrant than what can be seen in person, representing the dreamy aspect a place can take on when it becomes significant.

Natalie Aranda is a graduate student at INSTAAR and in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, studying ecosystems in the streams of Antarctica’s Dry Valleys.

Gallery space in SEEC

The university's Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) building has two gallery spaces:

1st floor gallery: On the south side of the first floor, in the long hallway that extends from the south atrium eastward to the courtyard. Note that the dinosaur is in the north atrium.
2nd floor gallery: In the central part of the second floor, above the first floor auditorium in the Albert A. Bartlett Science Communication Center (C215).

These spaces host rotating exhibits of art by partners, CU members, artists, and community programs that touch on themes of sustainability, climate, or environment.

The gallery spaces feature STAS hanging systems and are governed by guidelines to protect the building and its residents.

Shelly Sommer programs the galleries, so contact her to find out more about the spaces, if you have an exhibit to suggest, or just want to know what’s on deck.

Snapshots

Diane Burko's painting of 4 time periods of the retreating Grinnell Glacier in Montana. It's an aerial view looking down on the glacier and its cliffs, showing an ever larger lake in front

Art x Climate Gallery

INSTAAR Affiliate Diane Burko was one of 92 artists chosen from >800 submissions for the first art gallery of the National Climate Assessment: Art x Climate. The gallery launched in November 2023. Shown here is Burko's portrayal of Grinnell Glacier retreating in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Some of the artists for the Assiduous exhibit, including Shelly Sommer on the left,pose at the Dairy Arts Center

Assiduous artists

Shelly Sommer, on left, was one of seven artists represented in the Assiduous exhibit at the Dairy Arts Center from July 14 - September 9, 2023. Her fiber piece, The Anthropocene, was made from woven VCR tape in response to the human impact documented in a paper by Jaia Syvitski and her colleagues.

Sylvia Michel explains how analyzing ice cores can tell us about past climatic conditions as Dairy Arts Center curator Drew Austin holds a section of teaching ice.

Art + Science collider

INSTAAR and the Dairy Arts Center collaborated on our 2nd Art and Science Connections Collider in April 2023 during Boulder Arts Week. The event began with a tour of INSTAAR’s Stable Isotope Lab. Here, Sylvia Michel (left) explains how analyzing ice cores can tell us about past climatic conditions.

Dwindling groundwater

Artist Jocelyn Catterson and INSTAAR scientist Holly Barnard speak about dwindling groundwater in the San Luis Valley in April 2023 in the CU Natural History Museum. They are paired as part of the CASE Fellows program that connects the arts, sciences, and community for shared action on Colorado’s environmental issues.

Marisa Sánchez Montes, Laine Moser, and Valerie Morris talk at the Dairy Arts Center

Art + Science coffee collider

A “coffee collider” between INSTAAR researchers and artists associated with the Dairy Arts Center showed that many of us have “slash” identities: dancer/scientist, curator/artist, artist/educator, or science/storyteller. Marisa Sánchez Montes, Laine Moser, and Valerie Morris talk at the Dairy Arts Center in January 2023.

Water is life

Jen Morse at the Dairy Arts Center for the opening of the Water is Life exhibit in September 2022. Jen spoke as part of a panel during the opening, alongside artists who created work for the exhibit.
Photo courtesy Drew Austin, Dairy Center for the Arts.

Events

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2024

2023

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Art+Science showcase

News

Framing the climate conversation through art, science and community collaborations (CU Boulder Community Outreach & Engagement)

Desert Visions: Paintings by Natalie Aranda

Gallery space in SEEC