Artist Lindsay Olson discusses how she creates art to convey scientific ideas. Dick Lanyon will explain drainage and sewage treatment. Together, they will celebrate the value of waste water treatment.
As a lifelong science phobe, Lindsay discovered that if she used her training as an artist, she could learn scientific concepts. This revelation occurred while working in the middle of the world’s largest waste water treatment plant in Stickney, Illinois. She became inspired to create art about this process and now uses the art to explain the value of waste water treatment. The art work from this project will be shown in the library gallery for the month of September.
Lindsay has worked as Fermi National Accelerator’s first artist in residence and has traveled to CERN as a member of Art@CMSShe’s partnered with scientists at the Field Museum, The Chicago Botanic Garden, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Her work has been featured in Scientific American, the Chicago Tribune, TextileArtist.org and many other publications. She teaches at Columbia College, lectures widely, and her work is currently touring in both the US and in Europe.
Dick Lanyon retired from his position as Executive Director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) at the close of 2010, a position that he held for 4½ years. The MWRD provides wastewater and stormwater management and other related services to protect the environment. Dick’s career at the MWRD spanned nearly 48 years. He is also the author of several books, including Building the Canal to Save Chicago, a historical documentary of the first project of the MWRD to enable the reversal of flow in the Chicago River. Other books include Chicago: The Early Years and the North Area, West by Southwest to Stickney, and Draining the Central Area of Chicago and Exorcising Clout. All four completely describe the engineered drainage system in metropolitan Chicago and history of the engineered MWRD infrastructure.
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