NEWS

Building on the success of last year’s Illustrating Health Exhibition, which featured outstanding undergraduate work at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Tech’s VISTA Center has introduced a traveling exhibit to showcase the artwork of Tech students and promote the popular interdisciplinary program.

The debut exhibit is currently at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (LSMSA) in Natchitoches through Monday and marks an important step in sharing the innovative, interdisciplinary projects developed at Tech through its VISTA Center.

Over nearly a decade since its beginning, VISTA has blossomed into a program where faculty from art, science, and engineering team to offer students a unique opportunity to communicate science, discovery, and medicine through art.

“This new traveling exhibit not only reflects the University’s commitment both to community engagement and to promotion of future collaborations and opportunities, but it also aims to broaden the reach of Tech students’ artistic and academic achievements by bringing their work to new audiences across the state,” said Nick Bustamante, professor in Tech’s School of Design in the College of Liberal Arts.

“The collaboration between art and science is unique, and as far as we know, there is not another undergraduate program quite like ours—certainly not in Louisiana and not in the South,” said Tech’s Dr. Jamie Newman, associate professor and associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Applied and Natural Sciences.

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Dr. Mary Caldorera-Moore, Newman, and Bustamante began this particular blending of science and art—now the popular VISTA Center—during work for a research publication in 2014-15.

The original Illustrating Health Exhibition was on display from August 2022 through July 2023 at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum in Baton Rouge and featured the work of 50 Tech undergrads.

The exhibit at LSMSA in Natchitoches features the work of students listed below and is available to enjoy 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. weekdays or by appointment.

The exhibit will end with a closing reception Monday, Sept. 23, from 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m.; the reception is open to the public.

“LSMSA has a lot of crossovers between science and art, and we felt the VISTA program would pique our students’ curiosity and show them a variety of career paths,” said Marcus Journey, who earned his MFA at Tech and has taught college-level visual arts classes to high school students at LSMSA since 2017.

“The Mission of the LSMSA Art Gallery is to introduce our students and community to a variety of professional and collegiate artists through monthly exhibitions throughout the year,” said Chris King, who oversees the art program at LSMSA. “Art is more than an accumulation of technical skills; it is a visual language used to communicate ideas, excel new ideas, and validate our life experiences.

“The VISTA Program aligns with our approach with students at LSMSA who wish to pursue cross-curricular interests that combine art, science, humanities, and beyond,” King said. “A creative student is marketable, and as technology and innovation are made more available to our students, the better prepared they’ll be for all career paths and aspects of life in the 21^st century.”

VISTA’s next traveling exhibit will be announced soon.

Full student artwork list at LSMA

Cecile Foster – Mental Heath infographic
Anna Morris – Human Genome Editing
Chloe Best – Osteolytic Metastatsis
Almira Bradford – Antibody-Antigen Interaction
Erin Timm – Genotypes of Angelman Syndrome
Adam Cook – Electron Transport Chain
Megan Barr – Adeno Associated Virus Gene Therapy
Maddie Dearman – Regenerative Medicine
Alaycia Moore – Drug Delivery
Abby Nickels – Deletion Specific Genotype of Chromosome 15
Jessica Trinh – Adipogenic Differentiation of Adipose Stem Cells
Jade Noble – Heart Disease infographic
Jessica Trinh – Cancer infographic
Cecile Foster, Kaitlin Maloy – Journey through the Heart Book
Maddie Dearman – The Journey of a Stem Cell Book
Ronald McKinney, Noah Ruff – Worrisome Waters Book
Ronald McKinney, Noah Ruff – Bully Blues Book
Geri Gravois, Victoria Breeding – Flu Finders Book