At the intersection of art and science | News, Sports, Jobs

Steve Langdon in the field, testing the depth of peat. Langdon will be speaking at the Art and Science Series at Hotel Saranac tonight.
(Provided photo — Dustin Angel)

SARANAC LAKE — “The line between art and science has always been blurred,” Charlie Reinertsen said.

Tonight, he’s hosting the first of the three-part Saranac Lake Art and Science Series at the Hotel Saranac, inviting people who connect the two fields to share their research and their artistic works.

Reinertsen, an artist and environmental scientist himself, said in the years he’s lived in Saranac Lake he’s been amazed with the number of multi-talented scientist artists or artist scientists.

“If you go to art galleries, you’ll inevitably end up meeting scientists who are also doing artwork,” he said. “I feel like this community really embraces the idea of pursuing many interests.”

Reinertsen, who is putting on these events through his Twolined Studio production company, said the series is “something to do during mud season” and will take place on every third Thursday of the month to lead right up to Third Thursday ArtWalks. The next Art and Science Series events are on April 17 and May 15.

“The Adirondacks are home to a sometimes hidden community of artist scientists,” Reinertsen said.

He said leaders in climate research, wildlife ecology and botany often moonlight as artists, interpreting their data in artistic displays. It’s a way to connect the public to their work through non-traditional pathways, cope with the grief of their findings or celebrate the hidden workings of the world.

Retired North Country Public Radio reporter, producer and weekday morning host Todd Moe will give the keynote address, “The Creative Spark: How Art Enhances Scientific Understanding” — a retrospective of people he’s interviewed throughout his career and his art and science endeavors since retiring in June — including botanical paper making, bookbinding and brewing homemade inks.

Then, Jason Hill will lead a session on how to use scientific data to tell a story — or how to tell a story about scientific data — with a focus on the Saltmarsh Sparrow, a small bird “living on the front lines of climate change.”

Angello Johnson, a sixth-generation black ash basket maker will talk about efforts to preserve the artistic tradition as ash trees are threatened by the Emerald Ash Borer.

Steve Langdon will present about the colorful and impressive Adirondack peatlands, and how they are being changed by human actions.

After the presentations, local environmental professor Curt Stager and environmental advocate Kary Johnson will provide a lively musical intermission, during which attendees can submit questions for the speakers. The speakers will then return to the stage to answer them in a Q&A session.

The doors at the Hotel Saranac ballroom open at 6 p.m. and events go from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased at twolined.com/art or at the door.

Moe, of Norwood, set out to provide an overview of the connection between art and science.

“It’s not a recent phenomenon,” he said.

In researching his address, he found that the connection between art and science can be traced back thousands of years. The ancient Greeks lumped the arts, science, geometry and arithmetic together. Leonardo da Vinci, known best for his paintings, was also an inventor and made major contributions to anatomy, astronomy and aviation.

In Moe’s 25 years at NCPR, he profiled many local contemporary artists in interviews and conversations, and said many of them incorporate science into their work.

“Both fields rely on skilled attention to details,” Moe said. “But can collaboration and artistic interpretation help raise awareness about critical environmental issues? Or, does the fusion of art and science serve two purposes: enriching public understanding of ecological systems, while also celebrating the beauty inherent in nature?”

Jason Hill works at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, where he runs a weekly science chat nearby. His session will focus on best practices for science communication — communicating knowledge through story.

The narrative focuses on “the life (and likely death) of the Saltmarsh Sparrow” which faces extinction within our lifetime due to rising seas.

“Uncover why stories make science stick — and why the fate of one small bird is a warning we should all heed,” Hill wrote in a description for his session. “Storytelling has the ability to make scientific results more memorable, meaningful and personal.”

Johnson is a wolf clan Mohawk from Akwesasne who owns a small business teaching black ash basketry.

He works with the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Environment Division with one of his focuses being invasive plant species management. The emerald ash borer is an invasive beetle that destroys ash trees as its larvae feed on bark tissue.

It was first discovered in the U.S. in 2002 and was in New York by at least 2009.

Johnson will speak about the importance of black ash basketry to Haudenosaunee culture, the threat of emerald ash borer to the cultural practices and current mitigation strategies.

“Ash trees are an invaluable resource to many Native American tribes of the Northeastern woodlands,” Johnson wrote in a description of his talk. “Their value is beyond monetary, it’s part of the cultural identity and to lose such a resource will be devastating.”

Steve Langdon of Saranac Lake will present on the “Power of Peatlands.”

Langdon has been working in Adirondack conservation for 25 years, doing shovel-in-hand trail maintenance and biodiversity research with government and private organizations. He’s an expert in his field — or, more accurately, his bog.

He’s involved in a number of research efforts surrounding impacts of human-caused global environmental change on biodiversity within the boreal-temperate ecotone with a particular focus on peatlands.

Reinertsen created the Northern Peatlands Project where he documents the southernmost point where northern peatlands exist and produces the Saranac Lake Hootenanny open mic every Monday evening at The Garagery. The Art and Science Series is supported by the Hotel Saranac, Adirondack Health and Trudeau Institute.

The next event on April 17 will feature Michele Drozd, Keeley Jock and Saikat Chakraborty. The May 15 event will feature Laura Von Rosk, Samuel Bowser, Helen J. Craig and Brian Weinrick.