UC Santa Barbara Residency Merges Art and Science

Though often taken up by divergent personalities and driven from opposite sides of the brain, the roots of art and science grow from the same fertile soil of creative exploration.

Since 2018, an appreciation of this common ground for collaboration has brought artists and environmental scientists together at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) for its annual artist residency. As the current summer-long program comes to a close, the residents for 2023 will reveal their work at “Art+Science,” an exhibition showcasing muralist and UCSB alumna Leila Youssefi and textile artist Bonnie Peterson.

Youssefi, also known as LvL Up Kid, graduated in 2018 with degrees in environmental studies and, through the College of Creative Studies, studio arts. Her artwork, she said, focuses on the wellbeing of society through themes of equity and sustainability.