Land Shapes, Skyscapes: Art, Astronomy & Ways of Seeing

About the Event

How do the ways we observe our surroundings shape how we understand them?

Join Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory and the Vanderbilt Curb Center for a conversation exploring how art and astronomy offer different, and sometimes overlapping, ways of looking at the world around us. Presented as part of the Curb Center’s Land Shapes exhibition, this discussion extends the exhibition’s exploration of land, place and our relationships with the environments around us.

The Conversation

Artists Lanecia Rouse and Jana Harper, whose work is featured in the Curb Center’s current exhibition, Land Shapes, will join Erika Grundstrom, Director of Astronomy Labs in Vanderbilt’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, to consider the terrestrial and celestial dimensions of our surroundings. Together, they’ll discuss how their respective practices encourage close observation, curiosity and new ways of thinking about our relationship to place, nature and the larger universe.

The conversation will consider what happens when artistic and scientific perspectives meet. What do we notice? What questions do we ask? How might looking more closely at the land beneath us or the sky above deepen our understanding and appreciation of the world we share?

The Experience

Sunset at Dyer – Arrive early, explore the Observatory and take in the views as the sun goes down.

Drinks + bites on us – Enjoy a hosted bar and light hors d'oeuvres during the sunset cocktail hour, included with admission.

A conversation that brings art and astronomy together – Hear from artists Lanecia Rouse and Jana Harper alongside Vanderbilt astronomer Erika Grundstrom.

A look through the telescope – End the evening with a chance to view the night sky through Dyer's historic Seyfert telescope.