The spring of 2016 marks the end of the fifth year of my involvement in the exciting S.P.A.C.E. initiative (Sciences Participating with Arts and Culture in Education). The mission: to facilitate interdisciplinary and collaborative projects in many forms by many people from a wide range of backgrounds. It is an ever-expanding experiment that focuses on a selected theme each year to give a center around which multiple orbits form. It defies easy description, but one of our valued advisors wrote the following:
“With each new theme, S.P.A.C.E. is reborn as a new love: new excitement, new joy, and a new open horizon, making students the Casanova of knowledge, falling in love with knowledge over and over again” (Maimire Mennasaemay, email communication, 2015).
My position on the team, in association with many people in the college community and beyond, has been to explore, develop, realize and manage content connected with the visual dimension of the S.P.A.C.E. webzine, the yearly exhibition and the associated catalogue productions.
The S.P.A.C.E. team is a highly dedicated, sleep-deprived and high-achieving group of individuals. From left to right in the photo: Joel Trudeau, Andrew Katz, Ursula Sommerer and myself. There are five successive exhibition catalogues visible in the photo, all designed by the intrepid Catherine Moleski. Not seen in the photo is the tireless Barbara Freedman (Dean of Instructional Development), and other vital individuals who have contributed much to the success of S.P.A.C.E., including Bob Kavanagh (consultant) Richard Filion (Director General) and a group of advisors. Thanks to all for entrusting the team to creatively expand upon this initiative over the years, with the resources necessary to meet the challenge.
The exhibition catalogues: