Painting with Microbes! Sunset Park Open Studios

Join Genspace to learn about artists and designers who work in collaboration with bacteria, plants, and fungi to explore new materials and new modes of thinking. What can we learn from non-human life forms? What is the role of care and experimentation? And what future can we envision or create in the lab? On Friday, October 16, we're offering free lab tours and the opportunity to make petri dish paintings with bacteria!

You'll learn how microbes can be engineered to produce eye-pleasing images and novel materials. Genspace will provide colorful or fluorescent microbes that you can paint on an agar canvas! In one weeks time, you'll be send photos of your grown piece just in time to submit to the American Society for Microbiology's annual Agar Art Contest.

Sunset Park Open Studios (SPOS) was born in 2019 from a shared belief: that the artists of Sunset Park deserved a spotlight in their own neighborhood. Founded by the NARS Foundation in collaboration with a coalition of local arts organizations, SPOS began as a grassroots celebration, an open invitation for the neighborhood to step inside its studios, meet its makers, and witness the creative work that surrounds us.

NOTE: This event is Family Friendly: youth ages 5-16 may attend with parent supervision and youth ages 16+ may attend without parent supervision.