Clinical Center News
June / July 2023

Clinical Center Art Exhibit: "Science Related"

Artwork with a scientific bent or created by people with scientific and medical backgrounds

Italian Wooden Microscope from the 1600s
Italian Wooden Microscope, pre-1689. This microscope is held in the Billings Collection at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring. "I chose the microscopes and scientific instruments for their unusual shapes and expressive qualities," said the artist.

This summer, the art program will feature "Science Related" – artwork with a scientific bent or created by people with scientific and medical backgrounds.

Five artists will exhibit their pieces, including:

Wood artist and illustrator Candice Tavares, who is a clinical pharmacy specialist in palliative care at Medstar Washington Hospital Center. "I'm a lifelong creative but it took many years for me to call myself an artist. Creativity has always brought me peace, so in the midst of all the COVID crazy I started drawing my feelings," said Tavares.

Tavares earned her doctorate of pharmacy from Howard University College of Pharmacy and went on to complete specialized training in palliative care at Abington Memorial hospital and Ohio State University.

Amy Lamb, worked at NIH and the Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland as a post-doctoral fellow. She earned her PhD in Zoology from the University of Michigan. She creates large format botanic photographs with close-up images of flowers and fruit to illuminate "their splendor, hold time at bay and create a dialogue between the viewer and the natural world."

Michele Banks, also known as Artologica, creates abstract paintings inspired by science and medicine. Her paintings and collages explore neuroscience, microbiology, climate change and more. She studied at George Washington University and Harvard.

Sue Fierston teaches workshops in the studio arts program at the Smithsonian Museums and is an artist-in-residence at Yosemite National Park in California. She received a grant from Montgomery County Arts Council to paint the historic microscopes from the Golub Collection of Antique Microscopes at UC Berkeley.

Barbara Southworth's work combines her twin passions of art and science. She is a printmaking photographer known for landscapes celebrating color, wildness and native diversity. Southworth graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and from Johns Hopkins University with a Master of Science in Environmental Earth Sciences and Policy. (Exhibiting October 7, 2023 – January 9, 2024)

Since 1984, the Clinical Center Fine Art Program has displayed carefully selected works in common areas, patient care areas and galleries throughout the Clinical Center. Patients, NIH employees and visitors all benefit from the stimulating, hope-filled pieces that promote healing in an aesthetically pleasing environment. This collection has more than 2,000 pieces of art including photography, sculptures, paintings, collages, watercolors, textiles, folk art and glass.

Art will be on display in two segments from July 8 through October 7, 2023 and October 7 through January 9, 2024. View the current exhibits online and learn more about the Clinical Center Fine Arts Program (Staff only).

- Donovan Kuehn

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