marine science art, 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!
You don’t have to understand the math or the mechanics to be wowed by science. The big global questions and the tiny daily marvels 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 researchers we met that night explained, scientists experience new insights in their research –when they see how the questions they’re exploring resonate with artists.
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 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.
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.
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.
Dora Arreola at the USF School of Theatre and Dance created our beautiful Spanish translations.
Dancer Helen Hansen French developed movement with Creative Clay’s dancers that included American Sign Language from ASL interpreter Carol Downing.
Science Music
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 – marine researchers sharing their favorite laboratory sounds.
Those recordings turned into groovy music thanks to sound designer Matt Cowley.
Marine 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.
Then a celebration of girl power and STEAM in the fun first story in this post, Zo Can Float! – inspired the Oceanography Camp Especially For Girls, a free 3-week immersion in marine science for 8th grade girls.
The photos that illustrate this story are amazing. And you know a Spanish version is in the works!
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 bedtime story.
The grand finale of our project was 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 by the amazing La Lucha.
Inclusivity
Kim Dohrman, CEO of Creative Clay, told me how empowering it was 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. I’m grateful to every amazing scientist and artist who joined this spectacular team effort.
This collaboration sparked friendships and forged creative partnerships that are ongoing. More marine science stories for kids of all abilities in English, in Spanish and in ASL are on the way!
Subscribe to the Sparks Creative Stories YouTube channel
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.