Again this fall, LPL hosted The Art of Planetary Science, an exhibition of art celebrating the beauty and elegance of science. This volunteer science outreach project was organized by graduate students Jamie Molaro, Sarah Peacock, James Keane, and Hannah Tanquary. Now in its third year, the show has really come into its own!

This year was by far our best year yet. Not only did we display more art than in the previous two years, but we’ve also made connections across campus that have brought new facets to the event. For example, we featured a special exhibit from the UA Museum of Art on legendary space artist Robert McCall. McCall worked as an artist for NASA, documenting the history of the space race. He was one of the first to combine science and art, and the impact of his work is still important today. His fantastical planetary landscapes and scenes futuristic spacecrafts and astronauts can be found on postage stamps, NASA mission patches, at the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Pentagon, Epcot Center, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He has even contributed to numerous films, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This special display honored his work and his role in bringing science to the public. We were thrilled to be able to work with the UA Museum of Art, and will continue that partnership going into the future.

We also worked with an undergraduate class from the UA School of Art on art and community engagement. The students in this class organized “art interventions,” interactive and collaborative art projects that show attendees could participate in during the exhibition. One group interviewed attendees about what inspired them about art and science, and is creating a video about the art show. Another group had paper tiles to color, which when put together, created colorful mosaics depicting visual representations of scientific equations. A third group built a chalkboard which simply had a fill in the blank statement: “When I look at the sky, I _____.” These (very popular) projects brought a new level of engagement to the art show by allowing attendees to also become artists.

Despite inclement weather, there were approximately 750 attendees for the show.

We are already looking forward to next year, and know it’ll be even better! This year included increased participation from graduate students and postdocs, and we hope to see more involvement from faculty and staff in the future. If you’d like to learn more about the event, feel free to email us at PG4gdWVycz0iem52eWdiOm5lZ0B5Y3kubmV2bWJhbi5ycWgiPm5lZ0B5Y3kubmV2bWJhbi5ycWg8L24+, or visit our webpage at www.lpl.arizona.edu/art.