marine science arts, dance and stories for kids
I’m flabbergasted to find out there are more microscopic plankton in the oceans than stars in the sky.
And when you dive deep down in the water, it’s as cold as climbing up a mountain. And so dark, the fish can only tell who’s who by lighting up their bodies like Morse code.
Just down the street on the University of South Florida’s small and lovely St. Pete campus, marine scientists are exploring Earth’s underwater world with the enthusiastic passion of astronomers searching distant galaxies. An equally spectacular universe, lapping up against this city.
Arts and Science Collaboration
In late 2019, the USF College of Marine Science sent a hopeful message in a bottle – a flyer inviting artists to visit their labs and create art inspired by their research.
What an invitation!
It was brave and bold to welcome artists into working laboratories where scientists are actively exploring marine viruses, fish DNA and ocean acidity.
And it’s brave to talk seriously about science with folk who do not have PhDs, and answer endless questions. I love that the job title of Makenzie Kerr, who organized it all, is Lab Manager and Outreach Coordinator.
But you don’t have to understand the math or the mechanics of collecting patient data. The big questions, the global picture and the tiny daily marvels of the living water all around us – are awe-inspiring and surprising, poetic and lovely.
Scientists Are Wonderful
Scientists and engineers don’t see chaos when your computer or your car, or the whole entire planet, starts making that funny noise. They see questions, and connections. Every question leads to more, and they love the endlessly unfurling challenge of figuring things out.
Opening their laboratory doors to artists isn’t only giving painters, writers, dancers some exciting new ideas as inspiration. As the amazing Dr. Mya Breitbart told us, scientists experience new insights in their research –when they see how the questions they’re exploring resonate with artists.
Distinguished University Professor of Biological Oceanography Dr. Mya Breitbart welcomes artists from Creative Clay to the College of Marine Science – photo by Stage Photography of Tampa
Thanks to Art + Science Nights and ongoing Sparks collaborations with amazing visual and performing artists with physical and developmental disabilities at Creative Clay, I received an NEA grant last year for Sparks Creative Stories to collaborate with Creative Clay and the USF College of Marine Science.
The point of our project was access – since not everybody in Florida’s able to get to the beach.
Lab Manager and Outreach Coordinator Makenzie Kerr shows artists Marquise Russ and Sienna Martin some marine science she scooped up outside the lab that morning – photo by Stage Photography of Tampa
Our focus was making marine science – an up-close and personal kind of science when you live in Florida – accessible online to residents and visitors of all ages and abilities, in English, in Spanish and in ASL.
Throughout 2024, Creative Clay’s artists visited the USF College of Marine Science and marine researchers visited Creative Clay.
Artist Ali Vasquez learns traditional Japanese gyotaku fish printing techniques when Makenzie Kerr brings samples of fish found in Tampa Bay so artists can decorate the lab coats worn by marine researchers
In Creative Clay’s Own Words
Poet Sara Ries Dziekonski created collaborative marine science poetry with Creative Clay artists. Their lovely words became our performance scripts for a live performance, dances filmed at USF with Creative Clay’s voices, a children’s story and an ode to plankton, all shared in English, Spanish and ASL.
Dancer Helen Hansen French developed movement with Creative Clay’s dancers that included American Sign Language from ASL interpreter Carol Downing.
Dora Arreola at the USF School of Theatre and Dance, who also has a degree in marine biology, created our beautiful Spanish translations.
Our soundscapes include data sonification of coral reef tract findings by Dr. Heather O’Leary’s CRESCENDO team, underwater recordings by USF grad student Tiffany Raetzel, and my favorite field recording session ever – Breitbart Lab researchers sharing their favorite laboratory sounds.
Those recordings turned into groovy music thanks to sound designer Matt Cowley.
More Sparks Science Stories
More marine science stories for kids of all abilities grew out of our collaboration. First, using visual memory to learn left and right with Dolphins on the Left! and in Spanish, ¡Delfínes a la Izquierda! illustrated by the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center.
And a celebration of girl power, STEAM and the stick-to-it-’til-you-find-an-answer of the scientific process in the fun first story on this page, Zo Can Float! – inspired the Oceanography Camp Especially For Girls, a free 3-week immersion in marine science for 8th grade girls, that’s been sparking young scientists for 30 years. The photos that illustrate this story are amazing.
And you know a Spanish version’s in the works!
A young scientist at the Oceanography Camp Especially For Girls – photo by Makenzie Kerr
And Then Hurricanes
Two terrible hurricanes in 2024 destroyed years of research samples at USF’s waterfront labs and flooded Creative Clay, who lost more than 40 paintings – including all our NEA artworks.
Those gorgeous paintings survive in photographs illustrating our bilingual Imagination Ocean + Imaginación Océano bedtime story, published in English+Spanish and in Spanish+English.
Collaborative Waves by Creative Clay, sadly lost due to Hurricane Milton but still illustrating Imagination Ocean
After two storms, we had to reimagine the finale of our creative collaboration – with a joyous Plankton Dance Flash Mob! Artists and scientists dancing together, choreographed by Fernando Chonqui after observing plankton through a microscope, set to a wonderfully catchy tune composed for Fernando’s plankton moves by the amazing band La Lucha.
Inclusivity
Kim Dohrman, CEO of Creative Clay, told me how empowering it is for artists with physical and developmental disabilities to visit a university campus and engage with faculty and students.
To experience the global feel of ocean science and tiny complex worlds seen through a microscope, was empowering for everyone.
Collaboration
Working together, sharing ideas and energy, is how every Sparks story comes to life – and always becomes better than I imagined on the page.
I’m grateful to every amazing scientist and artist who joined this spectacular team effort.
You can read USF’s news story,
“Art-science collaboration sheds new light on ocean research”
This collaboration sparked friendships and forged creative partnerships that are now ongoing. More marine science stories for kids of all abilities in English, in Spanish and in ASL are on the way!
English+Spanish+ASL
Video Audio Text and Images
You can experience inclusive online arts inspired by marine science as video and audio on our Sparks Creative Stories YouTube channel, text and photos on my website – and through the brand new paintings Creative Clay made to replace the ones that were destroyed, now hanging proudly at the USF College of Marine Science.
Clown of Essential Forest in Seas by Ashton T
Produced with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Pinellas, the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners and the State of Florida.
Rainbow Forest by Sheryl L.