Morgan Clark is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Janzen Lab at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. She studies behavioral ecology, working to understand how individual animals exhibit consistent variation in behavior and how these behavior types may influence their interactions with one another and their environment.
As a kid, I fell in love with art in an after-school program called “Bright Futures”. Each day after school, for a specific segment of the year, I would have the opportunity to learn about art across various media from local artists and instructors. I carried this with me throughout life and have loved making art casually in my free time.
As I developed my career in the sciences, it became apparent to me that many people think of the worlds of science and art as distinctly separate entities – science, math, and logic can be grouped, while art, creativity, and expression belong in another category. However, there were several key moments throughout my career where this dichotomy seemed to break down. First, as a high school teacher for several years, I noticed my students were better able to connect with science as a way of learning if it included artistic expression. Incorporating art into scientific concepts often made new information feel more accessible for my students. After teaching I went on to graduate school. During my Ph.D. program, I am realizing that this can be true across all ages: art in science can be a powerful tool for engaging the broader community in scientific information and endeavors. When I joined W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS), I knew I wanted to participate in ongoing art in science initiatives to foster these connections.
The KBS Artist in Residence Program is an exceptional initiative hosted by the Long Term Ecological Research Program (LTER), where local artists are invited to stay at KBS and participate in a place-based experience to learn about ongoing research and transform their findings into art pieces. During their residency, artists spend time as part of the KBS community to gather diverse perspectives on ongoing research and the natural places where this research is conducted. This past summer, I was awarded the KBS LTER Artist in Residence Graduate Student Fellowship to assist in running this program and connecting artists with KBS community members.
Highlights of the fellowship
During my summer fellowship, the residency program hosted four artists. This is more artists than we have been able to host in the past, and it was a tremendous opportunity to learn from artists from different backgrounds, each working in their own medium. This summer, artists brought expertise in Indigenous beadwork, poetry, quilting, spoken word, multimedia, digital collage, and painting. I loved being able to interact with each artist to learn more about their backgrounds, working styles, and discover how these different art modalities connect with their current work outside of art. As part of my responsibilities in the fellowship, I coordinated lodging and amenities for artists and introduced them to researchers at KBS. I enjoyed learning more about the specific research each artist was interested in and hearing their reflections on ongoing research work after meeting with the research faculty.
During the summer session at KBS, dozens of undergraduate research students stay on campus to take part in summer research programs. I enjoyed coordinating meetings between artists and undergraduates; the students were really excited to hear about the intersection of art and science through the lens of each artist.
I also led a hands-on professional development event for K-12 teachers as part of the KBS LTER Summer Institute during my fellowship. In this workshop, I demonstrated an activity I used as a high school teacher that explored the nature of science through observation and included artistic ways of learning. I enjoyed connecting with teachers and discussing how the science-art interface can benefit learning across all levels.
Overall, this fellowship was an excellent opportunity for me to continue my professional development at the nexus of art and science and build connections between artists and researchers at KBS. I am excited to apply what I learned during the fellowship to continue promoting participation and understanding of science through art throughout my career.