On May 6, BioArt students at Lexington High School attended a field trip to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design to attend the annual BioArt Bonanza exhibition, an event that showcases art made with a scientific focus from across the state. This free public festival invites visitors of all ages to engage with hands-on workshops and exhibitions, and experiment with multiple forms of the contemporary art movement. 

Paul Belenky, the BioArt teacher at LHS, aimed to inspire students and show them the possibilities of bioart. 

“I used to work for the professor [at MassArt], who is the head of their biology department. He puts on this festival every year, celebrating the intersection of art and biology, and invites us to come participate,” Belenky explained.

Students had the opportunity to display their own works in the festival as well.

“Students were able to showcase their work and compare and contrast what the students in the college are doing for their projects. Some of the projects that we’re doing, like we do a comic book-based lesson, are inspired by a comic book artist who’s a professor at MassArt,” Belenky said.

Melissa Quinze, a junior at LHS taking the BioArt course, noted this overlapping of techniques and activities between the exhibition and projects that she worked on in class.

“The first project that we did this year was a comic book on some science concepts. And then when we got there, there were artworks from students who paired up with actual scientists and did comic books about their research. So I just thought it was really cool, because it was like, oh, we did that too,” Quinze explained.

Additionally, students participated in a variety of activities during the field trip. These included live animal drawing, microscopy, botanical bioprintmaking, and more. 

“I thought a lot of it was just going to be biology and bioart related, but it was actually really diverse. There were people with animals there, and I got to hold a live Python. And there was another girl who was doing trivia, not on BioArt stuff, but general knowledge,”  Ganeve Kaur, a sophomore at LHS taking the BioArt course, noted.

Students expressed particular interest in the interactive pieces within the display.

“There was this one girl, and she was an exchange student, and she had built this huge tree out of paper. It was just so inspiring to see the time she spent. She was making everybody paint their own leaves and put their manifestations on them. So she would put it on her tree for her sculpture. It was really cool,” Kaur said.

The BioArt field trip provided broader insight into the larger scope of the bioart field. Just as Belenky wanted, the students were able to take a lot away from the experience, and overall grow their knowledge of bioart and the possibilities it opened. 

“It really expanded my perspective on bioart. In class, we did a lot of things like microscopes and drawing, but bioart is a lot more than that, and I think it just opened my eyes to [the field] in general,” Quinze said.

Looking forward, the purpose of the bioart event is to educate, inspire, and leave an impact on the students who attend.

“I hope for my class in general, that students can realize that this stuff is for them, that either art making or biology or doing both together is something that is for them later in their life, past this class,” Belenky concluded.