Past art-science events

The Peoples’ heART (Health Equity x Art) is a project dedicated to exploring health equity and addressing health disparities through art. By curating art installations in healthcare spaces in partnership with area communities, they are able to highlight relevant topics in equity and use art and design to reimagine healthcare. The Body Works highlights prints from two Peoples’ heART projects: Jessica Skintges Wallach’s series The Body is Good and Darlene Devita and Sarah Putnam’s People of Chelsea.

The Body Is Good is an invitation to reimagine space as a love letter to the body. Jessica’s artwork explores the lived experiences of being disabled in the 21st century as a way of creating a love letter to the body.

The People of Chelsea project was born from a deep love of the city just across the harbor. Photographer Darlene DeVita and writer Sarah Putnam teamed up to pay homage to those who make the city work every day, across ages, experiences, and languages.

For local photographer and conceptual artist Rosamond Purcell, nothing ever stays the same. As artifacts defy preservation, age, and decay, Purcell captures moments of transformation that are at once unsettling and sublime. Perhaps best known for her photographs taken in natural history museums, over the last five decades she has collaborated with scientists, scholars, collectors, and writers such as the late Stephen Jay Gould, the late Dr. Pere Alberch, the collector George Loudon (Object Lessons, UK) , the curator Robert Peck, and her husband Dennis Purcell on various projects that explore the nebulous space between art and science. “Often, I depend on the appearance of objects and people rather than on internal inspiration to stir me into action,” Purcell says. “I use whatever I can of shapes, light, and time as elements in composition. And I pay strict attention to composition on the assumption that if the appearance is satisfying to the viewer, emotional involvement might then become possible.”

Stemming from his previous work in which his mother wove a textile out of his genetic code, Emilio has been working on a custom software that translates an individual’s genetic codes into pixel arrays that compose genetic portraits. He invited nominations from fellow Broadies to receive a genetic portrait based on one simple question: who is the person at Broad you are most grateful for? Each portrait reveals the genetic uniqueness of the subject and challenges our capacity and common desire to capture the visual essence of a person. In a historical moment when portraiture is both emptied of meaning (through generative software that can produce photorealistic content without any physical referent in the world), but still remains the main way in which identities are produced and consumed, this series opens a path towards a more intimate form of portraiture at the intersection of biotechnology and conceptual art.  

Cover images require the team that creates them to reexamine the scientific work through metaphor, representation, and reflection, and in so doing, provide another point of connection for author and audience alike.  A manifestation of this dialogue, these images seek to convey the essence of a paper and inspire the viewer to learn more about the underlying science. A great deal of thought, creativity, and collaboration goes into the creation of a cover image, even though most cover submissions, by necessity, will never be printed. Until now. A collaborative exhibit with Broad Institute’s Design Affinity Group.

In a screen-printing process she developed during her Broad residency, Lucy Kim transfers genetically-modified E. coli cells that produce melanin directly onto paper. Kim is exploring, materially and conceptually, what happens when images become visible through the same black and brown pigment that plays a key role in human coloration and appearance.

Nathalie Miebach and Yu-Wen Wu reveal, translate, and manifest data and its interpretation in their work, as they seek to understand the world for themselves and to inspire us to see a way forward. Both artists work at the intersection of art, science, whether in translating meteorological and COVID-19 data in weaving as Miebach does, or examining issues of displacement, assimilation, and identity as Wu does in large-scale drawings. The artists discussed their process in a virtual conversation in collaboration with Catalyst Conversations. 

In this recorded hybrid event, Broad’s 8th artist-in-residence, Emilio Vavarella introduced his work and what drew him to the Broad, followed by a brief audience Q&A. 

Broad hosted the in-person premiere of this online, collaborative exhibit, conceived by Concord-based artist Elizabeth Awalt to commemorate the American lives lost to COVID. Artists were invited to make at least 1,000 “marks” on any surface, in any medium and then post a public photo of the work using the hashtag #markinglivescovid19. As part of the exhibit Broad hosted a virtual conversation around the exhibit in collaboration with Catalyst Conversations, and Awalt hosted a virtual art-making tutorial for Broadies to contribute to the project.

Ben Denzer, Broad’s 7th artist-in-residence, spent a year exploring the Institute, speaking with scientists, and making large spiral bound artist books. In this talk, Ben discussed the term “artist book,” shared the context around his body of work, and presented the titles published while in residence at the Broad.

Poetry for Science started on Earth Day, 2017 when demonstrators around the world called to support and safeguard the scientific community, fact-based decision making, basic research and freedom of speech for scientists. Broadies were invited to read the poems in this exhibit, and participate in a virtual panel discussion in collaboration with Catalyst Conversations. 

Artists Michelle Samour and Maggie Stark create realms of wonder. They are masters of their respective craft, and use their materials to engage the viewer in ideas about permanence, transience, and the intersections between science, technology and the natural world. As part of the exhibit, Broad hosted a virtual conversation in collaboration with Catalyst Conversations. 

In celebration of its fifteenth anniversary, Broad hosted an exhibit of five artists from the program and a gallery talk in which the participating artists reflected on how their time at the Broad influenced their work. 

Emily Eveleth became fascinated with how artists and scientists generate ideas and sort through data while sharing ideas in a 2015 public talk at the Broad Institute. Results of Interpretation included paintings, drawings, and compositional explorations, sheets of drawings resembling story boards, a kind of formative research that usually never leaves the studio. 
 

This public conversation, in collaboration with Women@Broad and Catalyst Conversations, featured Jody Weber, Lucy Kim, Stacey Gabriel, and Ashlee Earl sharing how their own thinking and projects are influenced by the intersection of art and science.

Former Broad Institute artist-in-residence Guhapriya (Gupi) Ranganathan installed key artworks that represent her evolution during twelve years of interactions with Broadies, and presented a public talk in which she described the interaction between the work installed and her work generally.

Installation artist Debra Weisberg introduced her work and her physical, improvisational approach, followed by an informal dialogue with attendees in this public talk.

A film screening and panel discussion with Chris Engles, Jody Weber, Bina Venkataraman, and Lisa Mullins which explored the potential of art to address social challenges such as climate change, presented in collaboration with HUBweek 2017.

In a fascinating conversation presented by Catalyst Conversations as part of HUBweek 2016, Broad Institute founding core member, Todd Golub, and artist-in-residence Naoe Suzuki, explored ideation as a collaborative effort and the potential to enhance both the art and research.

Artist and scientist, Dan Jay described how he uses chromatography, a technique usually used for nucleic acid or protein purification, to make color abstractions. Participants were provided the opportunity to make their own sketches and process them in the laboratory.

Painter Emily Eveleth and Senior Software Engineer David Tester, explored the idea of beauty and how it resonates and overlaps in both of their worlds in this special event in collaboration with Catalyst Conversations for Hubweek 2015.