Exhibit uses art to communicate scientific research to community

Downtown Phoenix campus

August 17, 2022

Researchers from all 3 Arizona public universities teamed with artists to collaborate on visual pieces

Dyadic communication. Synaptogenesis. Repetitive behavior modification.

All very important lines of scientific inquiry that are all being studied in the heart of downtown Phoenix on the 30-acre medical education and research campus known as the Phoenix Bioscience Core (PBC), where innovative minds are engaged in an endeavor to enhance the health of the surrounding community.

But to the average Phoenix resident, such concepts can seem vague at best and completely foreign at worst, when in reality they each refer to research having to do with cancer, traumatic brain injury and dementia — concepts that are not only easy to grasp but that have likely touched many of their lives.

In the Artist + Researcher Exhibition, the first project to come out of the recently formed PBC Arts Committee, nine pairs of local artists and researchers from all three of the state’s public universities collaborated on visual art pieces that communicate some of the groundbreaking research taking place on the PBC every day in a way that makes it accessible to all.

Nearly a year in the making, the exhibit had a private debut last Friday in a gallery space at 850 PBC, the latest addition to the PBC, and is set to relocate to the Health Sciences Education Building at 435 N. Fifth St. on Sept. 2, where it will be available for public viewing.

The exhibit was the brainchild of Cynthia Standley of the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix, a self-described physiologist-slash-neuroscientist and dabbler in the arts who was inspired by a similar program at University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine to try her hand at bridging science and the arts here in the Valley.

“Art is so approachable, and it speaks to everybody,” Standley said. “We may not even realize it when we're looking at the piece of work, but it remains with us and we're thinking about it later. So I think it's a perfect medium to get across some of the really impactful science and innovations that are happening here on this campus and to help the community understand what is really being accomplished here.”

In “Dyad,” neon artist Lily Reeves collaborated with Shelby Langer, an associate professor in Arizona State University's Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation who researches dyadic, or two-person, communication and emotion regulation within the context of chronic illness, to create a piece featuring two mirrors, each with a different-colored neon light, that use “perspective and optical illusion to speak to the combination of two truths.”

Langer is wrapping up a five-year grant-funded study called “Couple Communication in Cancer: A Multi-method Examination” in which she and colleagues assessed the communication of over 300 patients and their partners while coping with breast, colon, rectal or lung cancer.

“We're hoping to get a much more nuanced understanding of the way in which couples communicate … and identify who might need extra support for better communication,” Langer said. “The idea is to better design interventions to support these couples as they're adapting to the cancer experience.”

Woman and man speaking next to a green, ceramic peice of art.

Ceramics sculpture artist Susan Beiner (left, chatting with ASU alumnus and painter Bill Dambrova at the Aug. 12 opening) collaborated with David Coon, professor and associate dean of research initiatives, support and engagement at ASU's Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, on two abstract pieces that represent his work with dementia patients.