The Esther Klein Gallery’s (EKG) newest exhibit features work from a group of young artists participating in the PENN Network Visualization Program. Networks Within and Around Us runs through January 26, 2018. A lecture by Dr. Danielle Basset will be held on Friday, January 19th at Quorum, 3711 Market Street Suite 800, at 5 p.m., followed by a reception with the artists from 6 – 8 p.m. at EKG, 3600 Market Street.
From social networks to brain networks that enable cognition, networks are everywhere. They describe how entities — people, objects, organisms, etc. — are connected and interact with each other. Young artists, from middle school students to young professionals, participating in the PENN Network Visualization Program spend six weeks interning with scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. They learn from scientists performing cutting-edge research in network science and create art to visually interpret and capture the intricacies of networks in novel ways.
Networks Within and Around Us features artwork by Yixiong Eason Bai, Brittany Bennett, Cody Bluett, Marie Elcin, John Freeman, Tamir Gorham, Nicholas Hanchak, Sara Hodgson, Rebecca Kellner, Katherine Khorassani, David Krevolin, Adam Lastowka, Evelyn McLear and Noemi Charlotte Thieves. The exhibition is curated by Sara Hodgson.
Curator and educator Sara Hodgson will lead a free workshop on brain art for young artists ages six and up on January 14th from 1:30 – 3 p.m. at EKG. At the workshop, students will learn how the left and right brain hemispheres communicate as they perform midline crossover drawings that promote brain network inter-connectivity. Register for the workshop here.
The PENN Network Visualization Program is run by Dr. Danielle Bassett, an American physicist and systems neuroscientist who was the youngest individual to be awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 2014. She was also awarded a 2014 Sloan fellowship. Bassett is the Skirkanich Associate Professor of Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania, where she applies network science to the study of learning in the human brain in addition to the study of other complex physical and biological systems. She received a B.S. in physics from Pennsylvania State University in 2004, and her CPGS and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge in 2005 and 2009 respectively.
Networks curator Sara Hodgson is an artist, designer and educator. For 35 years, she has worked with academic, artistic and community centers to develop outreach programs for school children. She has worked for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Philadelphia Museum of Art developing traveling art exhibitions with the intent of bringing artwork to underserved communities. In 2000 she established a nonprofit entitled The Artworks Enrichment Fund. The mission of this fund is to bring art work and art supplies to school students whose programs had been eliminated through budget cuts. She is the founder and art director of Incompra Design. In 2014 she partnered with Dr. Bassett to develop the Skirkanich Internship in Network Visualization. She also teaches middle school art at Westtown School in West Chester, PA.
About the Science Center
Located in the heart of uCity Square, the Science Center is a mission-driven nonprofit organization that catalyzes and connects innovation to entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. For 50+ years, the Science Center has supported startups, research, and economic development in the life sciences, healthcare, physical sciences, and emerging technology sectors. As a result, graduate firms and current residents of the Science Center’s incubator support one out of every 100 jobs in the Greater Philadelphia region and drive $13 billion in economic activity in the region annually. By providing resources and programming for any stage of a business’s lifecycle, the Science Center helps scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators take their concepts from idea to IPO – and beyond.
About the Esther Klein Gallery
The Esther Klein Gallery (EKG), which opened in 1977, uses the creative arts as a platform to explore relationships between art, science and technology. EKG seeks to positively impact the cultural life of both its immediate neighborhood of West Philadelphia and the broader Philadelphia community. EKG programming is designed to explore the range of art, science and technology exhibitions, and includes gallery talks, panel discussions, and education programs. For more information, visit www.sciencecenter.org/discover/ekg.
