Nature's Gallery, a UC Davis mosaic mural in the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., comprises 148 ceramic tiles depicting plants and insects found in the Storer Garden in the UC Davis Arboretum. Entomology professor Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick led the creative effort as part of their Art-Science Fusion Program. (Courtesy photo)
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UC Davis' collaboration between art and science has gone national — with a summerlong exhibit at the United States Botanic Garden on the National Mall across from the Capitol.
As planned, the outdoor exhibit, titled Nature's Gallery, comprises 130 ceramic tiles depicting plants and insects commonly found in the UC Davis Arboretum's Storer Garden, which showcases drought-resistant plants.
As the exhibition was being installed in June, Christine Flanagan, public programs manager at the U.S. Botanic Garden, said by e-mail: "Our entire staff is raving at how beautiful the tiles are — my only complaint is that I can't keep people at their jobs," explaining that employees kept returning to the mosaic to see the tiles as they were installed.
The exhibition is scheduled to run through Oct. 8 at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., as part of the botanic garden's installation called Celebrating America's Public Gardens.
Returns as a permanent installation
Then, the exhibition will return to UC Davis to be a permanent installation in the arboretum by joining the Art-Science Fusion mosaic and mural in the new GATEways project, aimed at better integrating the arboretum into the university's academic mission.
Nature's Gallery "will result in unprecedented opportunities for public access to the academic enterprise and lifelong learning locally and nationally," said UC Davis Professor Diane Ullman, co-director of the campus's Art-Science Fusion Program and associate dean for undergraduate programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Ullman and artist/alumna Donna Billick, the other director of the Art-Science Fusion Program at UC Davis, helped organize the campuswide collaboration to create the tiles this spring.
The national exhibit is in two parts: A Sense of Place, with 12 participating gardens from around the United States; and Green Today, Greener Tomorrows, with eight participating gardens, including the UC Davis Arboretum.
Student Thu Nguyen paints a Jerusalem cricket on ceramic tile for the Nature's Gallery exhibit. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis)
Plants and insects
The UC Davis tiles depict plants and insects found in the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden in the UC Davis Arboretum.
Students, faculty, staff and community members crafted the tiles. They were packed in special crates and sent by truck to the nation's capital, where Billick and an assistant will assemble the mural.
Nearly 50 students took part in the spring quarter project. Professor Ullman said she saw their enthusiasm from the very beginning when she asked them to write descriptions of the plants and insects that would be the subjects of the ceramic tiles.
"It was the best writing I have ever gotten," Ullman said.
The students' precision extended to their plant and insect drawings, even though most of the students are not trained artists.
Liked what they saw
Ullman, an entomologist, and Warren Roberts, a horticultural botanist and arboretum superintendent, reviewed the drawings for accuracy — and liked what they saw.
Design students led by lecturer Gale Okumura created a suite of printed materials explaining the project for the thousands of visitors expected to see Nature's Gallery through the summer.
A United States Botanic Garden official estimated that more than 300,000 visitors will see the mosaic mural.
"The overall intent … is to reveal the relevance of public gardens to the future of our nation," Christine Flanagan, the national botanic garden's public programs manager, wrote in a letter supporting the UC Davis project.
"We hope to encourage other communities to try this innovative approach to environmental education."