September 16, 2022. Congratulations to all the collaborators that made possible the ‘Space Bear’ installation at the Imagine Children’s Museum for The PASEO Festival. Special thanks to: Tracy Jaramillo and Taylor Etchemendy for inviting STEMarts Lab to work with the Imagine staff, and to the artists, Amy Pilling and Pneuhaus. STEMarts Apprentices, Megan Odom and Feliciana Mitchel-Gonzales performed to share their knowledge about Tardigrades. Aspen Granger composed and performed Tardigrade-inspired music. Special thanks to The PASEO for inviting us to be a part of the festival that brings us all together! These photos taken by Jackie Kolbenschlag really capture the magic that was created through this collaboration.
Wondering what is a tardigrade? STEMarts Apprentice, Amelia Martinez, wrote an excellent blog post that answers that question and shares her experience with the Space Bear project.
About the Space Bear project:
BioArtist, Amy Pilling, designed the Space Bear summer workshop for the STEMarts Lab workshop series at Imagine and worked with the STEMarts Apprentices to design and then lead the workshop with 60 elementary grade students at Imagine. For the PASEO Festival, Pneuhaus was the artist collective that created the inflatable tardigrade sculpture that inspired us all. Amy designed the tardigrade installation that allowed participants to hunt for the real tardigrades using the microscopes. Imagine staff worked with young children to create the glow in the dark suspended helium tardis in the second room.
STEMarts 2022 Apprentices: Svetlana Backhaus (worked with Amy on curriculum design), Megan Odom, seen in the photos, was the lab coat performer explaining Tardigrades to the audience with Feliciana Mitchel-Gonzales. Apprentices, Amelia Martinez, Dominique Vigil and Alyson Martinez were instructors for the summer workshop. Aspen Granger was the composer and performer of Space Bear ambient sounds for the event.
Special thanks to our sponsors: Taos Community Foundation, New Mexico Arts, LANL Foundation, LANL Community Partnership Office and DinoLite for donating the microscopes.
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Space Bear visits the Capitol
February 16, 2023. Thank you Michelle Laflamme-Childs, Executive Director at NMarts for inviting the Space Bear to the STEAM Day at the Legislature. Artist, Amy Pilling and STEMarts 2022 Apprentice, Megan Odom suspended the Pneuhaus glowing tardigrade and set up the microscopes for some tardigrade hunting.
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