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As Ed Kerns, Eugene H. Clapp II ’36 Professor of Art and director of the Williams Visual Arts Building, gave Wayne Leibel an impromptu tour of the facility recently, the associate professor and head of biology was stunned by what he saw.
“We went up to his studio, where there were several ‘knock-your-socks off,’ big, vertical, digital art pieces,” Leibel recalls. “He had large panels representing the diversity of living things: sharks, fish, elephants, plants, macaws, etc., and he had a five-panel series that he called ‘Evolution.’”
The panels start with cells and primitive creatures, continuing with fish, Siamese twin amphibian skeletons, a gorilla skeleton, and finally, a human skeleton wrapped in DNA. Kerns produced them in collaboration with his students.
The biology department was seeking to redecorate its foyer, which for as long as Leibel could remember, had displayed primate skeletons, fossils, and shells. Impressed by the colors, design, and execution, Leibel asked about purchasing the art.
Ten sets of the panels were to be sold through galleries, but Kerns offered them at wholesale cost.
“We have, as a trial, hung six — three per side of the auditorium — depicting elephants, sharks, rays, plants, invertebrates, and macaws,” says Leibel. “We are redoing the wall and adding ceiling lights and hoping to have all this ready by graduation.”
The main lecture hall, which Leibel calls “somber and bland,” will be redone by having Kerns and his students add art capturing “the diversity of life” to a section of the wall.
The panels have received positive feedback from faculty, students, and visitors, and by summer’s end, the pieces will be installed permanently. Leibel hopes this is the start of a “grand collaboration” between the art and biology departments.