Can Knitting Help Teach Science?

A Cell Biologist Reflects on the Connections Between Stitches and STEM

When I was about 8 years old, my grandmother took me to a local fabric store to pick out a pattern for a dress we could sew together. Piecing together the brown pattern paper, cutting out fabric, and learning to pin and hem, I felt like I was solving the ultimate wearable puzzle.

What I didn’t know at the time was that I was also preparing for my PhD in cell biophysics—the study of how cells, and the structures within them, move and grow. Cells form, and interact with, the squishy, …

Artistic Director at Large Nataki Garrett

Let’s See What We’ve Done to Ourselves

Nataki Garrett is the co-artistic director of One Nation/One Project and the national Arts and Health initiative #ArtsforEveryBody. She was the sixth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival–the first …

Shelby Williams-González

Inner-City Arts CEO and President Shelby Williams-González

You Can Only Make So Many Flower Pots in COVID

Shelby Williams-González is president and chief executive officer of downtown L.A. arts education provider Inner-City Arts. Previously the executive director of artworxLA, she is also a company member of the …

Sorry, Reading Jane Austen Doesn’t Make You a Better Person

But the Arts Have Plenty to Tell Researchers About How Emotions Work

In 2013, Science published a study with the intriguing title, “Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind.” The authors (David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano) claimed to have proven that …

Can Engaging with Art Turn a Bunch of Selfie-Takers into Citizens?

Changing Audiences Are Making Creators and Institutions Rethink Art Itself

If the essence of art is necessarily elusive and hard to define, so too is the essence of arts engagement. As audiences grow more diverse and demanding, and new digital …