"Art of Red Tide Science" Projects to Be Unveiled Nov. 29

The public is invited to view the latest "Art of Red Tide Science" outreach projects from the Ringling College of Art and Design. Dr. Emily Hall and Ms. Anamari Boyes have once again built an outreach project in their Ringling science classes.

When: November 29, 2011
Where: Hendry Conference Room, Mote Marine Laboratory, 1600 Ken Thompson Parkway, Sarasota, FL 34236
Time: 7 pm until 9 pm

The Art of Red Tide Science is a combined effort of Mote Marine Lab Red Tide scientists and Ringling School of Art and Design's students to communicate Red Tide research in a more appealing way to the general public.

Over the last 20 years, research on the Florida Red Tide organism (Karenia brevis) and its effects has made significant progress. Although this progress has uncovered many interesting pieces of this complex issue, it has also created challenges on communicating these new findings to stakeholders. These challenges grow larger when the resources for outreach strategies and materials are limited by project time duration and funding.

For this reason, and in collaboration with Mote Marine Laboratory, a movement was initiated to try to address these challenges by combining the artistic talent of the Ringling School of Art and Design students with the Florida Red Tide research at Mote Marine Laboratory.

The Ringling students, all part of a class called "Ecology of Water," developed a final project based on one aspect of Florida Red Tide (control and prevention, economic issues/real estate/tourism, nutrients, monitoring, mitigation, history/cultural, human health, and technology) with a goal of producing an outreach tool for the public to better understand Florida Red Tide.

Through many weeks of preparing the background information and learning about Florida Red Tide, their creations, which can be in any format they choose (short video, magazine, comic book, art piece etc..) are exhibited and judged by a panel of selected scientists, managers, artists, and the general public.

After a week of exhibition, a "Best in Show" is awarded. The winning group gets recognized locally, put on display at Mote Marine Aquarium, and has the possibility of being exhibited in different locations along the Gulf Coast.

All projects entered are subject to being mass produced and distributed as a helpful outreach tool to better understand Florida Red Tide.

Thanks to the FWC/FWRI-Mote Red Tide Cooperative agreement for funding this event!