Source: 2022 Annual Meeting Highlights. CSA News 68:26-36.

—Dan Richter, Professor of Soils, Duke University

The Science-Art Program at the 2022 Annual Meeting was by many measures a resounding success. Participants came from across the three Societies and from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Philippines, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, the United States, and no doubt other nations. The program spanned the three-day meeting and included painting, videography, poetry reading, tapestry, artificial intelligence-created imagery, and a well-attended and lively symposium.

The organizing committee, co-led by Clay Robinson (Clay Robinson Consulting), Kirsten Kurtz (Cornell), and Jeanne Pluemer (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA), also included Irfan Ainuddin (California State–Chico), Garrett Liles (California State–Chico), Seth Murray (Texas A&M), Eli Newell (Cornell), Dan Richter (Duke), and Karen Vaughan (Wyoming). All came away from the meeting deeply impressed by the potential for science and art to interact to the benefit of both and determined to grow the tradition of science-art programs at the Societies’ Annual Meeting. The 2022 program was entitled “Communicating Science Through Art” and was by far the most ambitious to date.

High points were the art gallery that featured paintings, photographs, sculptures, and striking Winogradsky columns. A collaborative soil painting event was held on Monday afternoon, led by Kirsten Kurtz, at which hundreds of participants helped to paint large canvases with soil paint. Karen Vaughan led a community painting event called, “Paint with Soil Pigments,” in which hundreds of small soil pigment paintings were created, many of which were immediately displayed in the art gallery throughout the meeting. Dan Richter and his Merry Band of Virgil Readers read selections from the Georgics (David Ferry translation), the 2,000-year-old poem about the earth and agriculture. Clay Robinson led a poetry slam in which Society members read from their poetry. Kurtz curated a series of science-art posters and videos from an array of artists and scientists.

The “Communicating Science Through Art” talks featured four speakers, Michael Walker (Positive Energy), Jenifer Wightman (Cornell), Kurtz, and Vaughan, and explored science and storytelling, “glorified” (and framed) Winogradsky columns, collaborative soil painting to stimulate communication and networking, and creative use of social media to communicate soil science through soil art. The talks led to many conversations, comments, and new networks.

The Science-Art Program organizers are especially indebted to Jeanne Pluemer, the Societies’ Associate Director of Meetings, who was invaluable to the program’s success.