NEA+Creative Pinellas
Beyond Placemaking Grant Project
Scientists and artists share a passion for exploration and discovery.
This project sparks inclusive collaboration between Creative Clay‘s neurodivergent and physically challenged artists and USF St Petersburg’s marine scientists, sharing my experience of working with both groups to explore creative possibilities.
Dr. Mya Breitbart explains her work and answers artists’ questions during Creative Clay’s field trip to USF’s Knight Oceanographic Research Center
USFSP’s College of Marine Science (CMS) and the Breitbart Lab work on crucial issues affecting everyone who lives in or visits Pinellas – including red tide, coral death and rising sea levels.
With many thanks to Distinguished University Professor of Biological Oceanography Mya Breitbart, Lab Manager and Outreach Coordinator Makenzie Kerr and Faculty Director of Education & Outreach and Biological Oceanographer Teresa Greely, this project welcomes scientists as creative collaborators and research material as art.
Our project invited marine researchers to share their work with Creative Clay and collaborate on visual, literary and performing arts that bring to life the crucial work USF’s College of Marine Science is doing to protect our coastal ecosystems.
Bedtime Story for Kids of All Abilities
Imagination Ocean is a new work in our Sparks Creative Stories series of free illustrated audiobooks for kids of all abilities in English, Spanish and ASL.
This story was written by me and illustrated by Creative Clay, to share the experience of floating in and exploring the ocean with kids and families who may not be physically able to go to the beach.
Sensory-friendly videos and screen-free audio versions of Imagination Ocean were published in English+Spanish and Spanish+English – and this beautiful ASL re-telling of the story.
Spanish translations for this project are by Dora Arreola of the USF School of Theatre and Dance.
Inclusive Performance Videos
We created three inclusive performance works inspired by the movement of Pinellas sea and shore life, devised in collaboration with CMS researchers by choreographers Helen Hansen French and Fernando Chonqui working with an inclusive dance ensemble, with the choreography on the live and filmed performances of What Shines Beneath informed by American Sign Language interpreter Carol Downing.
What Shines Beneath’s sound design includes underwater recordings by CMS graduate student Tiffany Raetzel – and USF anthropologist Dr. Heather O’Leary’s data sonifications of College of Marine Science data on red tide and coral reef tract findings.
These instrumental works were composed by USF School of Music students and performed by the USF Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble.
An inclusive dance performance with selections from Creative Clay’s collaborative poem shared in English, Spanish and ASL
Creative Clay artists improvised music with teaching artist Ashton Sanchez, evoking imagined sounds of marine life.
Our second inclusive dance film had to be reimagined after two back-to-back hurricanes flooded Creative Clay’s studio and our lead choreographer’s home, and extensive power outages at the College of Marine Science caused the loss of years of research samples.
As a joyful and much-needed spark, we organized an inclusive Plankton Dance Flash Mob on the USFSP campus in December, with an ensemble of artists and scientists laughing together as we all learned choreographer Fernando Chonqui’s “Plankton Dance,” set to a brand new Plankton Tune specially created for the film by the terrific band La Lucha.
A jellyfish prop made by Creative Clay for our live performance
Devin Rice and Matthew Mayes filmed What Shines Beneath and the Plankton Dance Flash Mob on USFSP’s campus, with stills photography by Ned Averill-Snell and editing by Devin Rice.
Dance rehearsals at Creative Clay with choreographer Helen French
Collaborative Poetry
We created two collaborative poems that share the words and ideas of Creative Clay’s artists, guided by poet Sara Ries Dziekonski.
Poet Sara Ries Dziekonski brings her notebook to Creative Clay, to write down everyone’s ideas.
You can read “What Shines Beneath”
You can experience the collaborative “Plankton Poem” performed as a bilingual work by poets Sara Ries Dziekonski and Letisia Cruz, illustrated with research images from the USF College of Marine Science and music created by sound designer Matt Cowley, using marine researchers’ favorite laboratory sounds.
you can also read the text
Visual Arts
As Dr. Mya Breitbart describes it, this project injects science into an arts space and arts into a science facility.
Creative Clay’s artists created visual arts inspired by their visit to the College of Marine Science labs and by CMS researchers visiting Creative Clay.
Creative Clay member artist Marquise Russ at the Knight Oceanographic Research Center
Creative Clay created 9 beautiful paintings to present to the College of Marine Science, bringing visual art to the lab facility.
Sadly, their studio was flooded during 2024’s catastrophic Hurricane Milton. Creative Clay lost more than 40 paintings, including all these NEA works.
The videos of Imagination Ocean are a record of those lovely artworks, using photos taken before their destruction.
Despite their busy schedule, Creative Clay’s artists painted 10 new marine science paintings, and donated them to the College of Marine Science in December.
These artworks were featured in USFSP’s annual Art + Science Night pop-up exhibit on January 23, 2024.
Thanks to Lab Manager Makenzie Kerr’s idea of repurposing slightly used research samples of fish collected in Tampa Bay, Creative Clay’s artists explored the traditional technique of Japanese gyotaku printing, and created fish prints on researchers’ lab coats.
The gyotaku technique sparks connections between Creative Clay and their sister organization in Takamatsu, Japan.
Lab Manager and Outreach Coordinator Makenzie Kerr led the fish printing workshop, and shares one of the lovely lab coats heading to the Knight Oceanographic Research Center
Sharing and Democratizing Science
This collaboration gives marine researchers the chance to experience their work in a new way, by seeing how artists interpret and are inspired by their research – and how the images and sounds that they’re collecting can be welcomed as art.
This project welcomes Pinellas residents and visitors who are often left out of location-based placemaking and arts projects.
– people with mobility and transportation challenges
– residents and visitors who are Deaf or with hearing impairments
– residents and visitors who are Blind or with visual impairments
– Spanish-speaking families
– and individuals and families too busy to fight cross-county traffic to attend in-person arts experiences.
By using all the arts to share the crucial work the CMS is doing, our project communicated vital issues that affect our local shores – and the beauty of its living creatures, even microscopic.
With artists assisting, the College of Marine Science can continue to democratize access to science – and artists can tell stories that help residents and visitors of all ages and abilities experience the wonder of the fragile Pinellas coastline, a resource we all need to respect and protect.
Produced with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Pinellas, the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners and the State of Florida.