CCRI Students Blending Art And Science In Unique Exhibition Funded By NSF Grant

06/04/2025

If you love art or science, and especially if you love both, you’ll want to visit CCRI’s Lincoln Campus this month.

Throughout the spring, CCRI Art & Design students collaborated with CCRI STEM professors and students to create original, science-inspired art projects. Funded by a $15,000 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR initiative, this collaboration highlights creative potential that emerges when these two disciplines meet.

The program will culminate in an exhibition at CCRI’s Flanagan Campus where projects will be displayed June 11 through 27. A public reception will be held June 11 at 4 p.m. ET.

“Bringing artists into science labs, combining those two fields, creates so many sparks and energy,” said Daniel O’Neill, program director and Chair of the Chair of the Art, Art History & Design Department. “The artists are fascinated by the science -- microscopic views of tissues, electron microscopic views of the smallest organisms, animal skeletons, specimens, detailed models of how organs function. And the scientists are fascinated by what the art can reveal and communicate.

“This grant allowed us to build a program focused on bringing experts and students from these two fields together, to spend time in each other’s worlds. Through their research, the students experienced how much art and science share, and created an art exhibition that demonstrates how an artist’s imagination and voice can lead us to new ways of seeing the natural world.”

This unique program focused on the overlap between drawing from observation and the scientific study of anatomy. Students engaged in workshops held at the CCRI Biology Department’s anatomy lab and the Rhode Island School of Design’s nature lab, and conducted visual research based on their personal artistic goals.

Drawing inspiration from these workshops, 10 students created original art pieces that will be showcased at the exhibition.

“It was amazing to see the students in this mentorship program gel as a team,” O’Neill said. “They propelled themselves through this experience with their joy of working together and openness with each other. Their communion gave them the confidence to explore and express personal subject matter.

Inspired by the results, O’Neill hopes to bring back the program for another year – and perhaps many more.

“When a group is comfortable sharing the art making process with each other, each person’s creativity is amplified,” he said. “Trusted collaborators serve as a test audience for developing works of art. This exhibition is the culmination of the collective energy of this group of talented students, channeled into presenting their vision to a wider audience.”

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