Students continue to expand the ways we consider communication as it relates to contaminated sites.  Some have been inspired to incorporate art into technical issues while others use their own art to examine challenging issues.

Abigail Thomas and Harrison Winkel discuss their 2020 SMOCS project, Using Art to Convey Science, in this video.

Rowan Perkins examined environmental justice issues as they relate to contaminated sites in her children’s book, Jayla’s New Park, from 2021.

This spring, the Theatre Department staged Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” a play originally written in 1882 but with issues that still feel contemporary. Ibsen’s play is about a doctor who discovers that the town’s newly constructed spa, a major tourist destination that serves as the town’s main economic force, has baths that have been contaminated by toxic runoff from a nearby tannery. The doctor attempts to warn the town about his scientific findings and the serious threat to human health, and proposes what he sees as a simple solution. Instead, he unintentionally releases a political firestorm that is played out through the press. 

At its heart, the play is about how stakeholders in a public arena come to an agreement — or don’t — over issues that divide a community.

But this isn’t a theater review; it’s a look at how art can be a powerful tool to communicate science, and how current events can inspire artists.

In “An Enemy of the People,” Dr. Tomas Stockmann initially receives the support of his family and friends, but once they realize the economic and social impacts of his cleanup proposal, their support wavers. Photo by Madison Joy LeFever.

While the theater students were rehearsing Ibsen’s play, on another part of campus, Science and Management of Contaminated Sites (SMoCS) — a combination of Environmental Sciences students and policy and journalism-focused students from Environmental Studies — were learning about contaminated site cleanup processes, regulatory management, and the communication of science.