Frost Entomological Museum Essay

704 Words3 Pages

Many artists do not walk into science labs and begin to create a drawing just as many scientists do not walk into art studios to begin research. What happens when the science lab meld with the art studio? The Frost Entomological Museum is a space where art students could enter the science world. The collection room in the Frost Entomological Museum is estimated with 2 million arthropod specimens. The purpose of the Frost Entomological Museum is to create an educational space for research, exhibition, and collection of aphids, anopluras, dragonflies, butterflies, scarab beetles and more insects. This project examines how to intertwine art and science together by creating scientific illustrations on entomology. The significance of the project …show more content…

They will record their finding in their sketchbook to illustrate the specimen. Despite modern-day technology of photography and computer-generated art programs, most scientific artists prefer hand drawn illustrations to help them achieve their results they are looking for. A curriculum that introduces the science of art production, conservation, experimentation, and the scientific skills of investigation could bring about tremendous results in the classroom (Getty). Naturalist and artist John Muir Laws (2016) concurs, “Observation, curiosity, and creativity are skills that you can develop. Learn to observe deeply and open yourself to the wonder of inquiry and investigation” (pg.5). The implementation of a curriculum co-mingling art and science challenges that art is not scientific. Even though some educational leaders view art education as not scientific, they fail to realize that scientists use artists to illustration insects and other specimens. Scientific illustrator Elaine Hodges (1989) of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, “The scientist needs illustration to communicate research results and concepts…Communication is the core; what stays in the scientist’s head or laboratory does not build the world’s store of knowledge”