“Storytelling and poetry, observation and experiment, myth and mathematics are all authentic windows on the world.”

Charles Goodrich

This collection of art and science projects from across the LTER Network was inspired by Ecological Reflections, a project of researchers associated with the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest LTER and the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word. Ecological Reflections sought to bring the environmental sciences, arts, and humanities together in long term attention to places and their cultural and moral meanings, as these change over time and generations. The idea held great resonance for many LTER scientists, especially those at sites with existing art and science collaborations. Six workshops, held since 2006, explored multiple facets of the connections between these creative endeavors and led to the Ecological Reflections web site, a few network-wide exhibits, and several new projects at LTER sites and elsewhere.  

Not all LTER sites have active arts-science-humanities projects, but many do. Some embrace the vision held by Ecological Reflections of arts and humanities as a different kind of long term record. Others simply enjoy the jolt of creativity and the potential for deeper community engagement that such projects provide. This page offers a home for all these authentic ways of seeing and being and is offered as a complement to Ecological Reflections, which continues to be managed by the Spring Creek Project.

Each image below represents an individual art-science project at an LTER site (or several). Please enjoy your journey through them.

To alert the LTER Network Office to new projects or to expand the description of a current project that you manage, please contact weiss@nceas.ucsb.edu.


“There is an unusual richness and joy in the community of art and science.”

Kathleen Dean Moore