If you had asked me yesterday what the connection between science and art is, I would blatantly tell you that there is none. In my mind, I had always thought of science as a factual concept that is taught in lecture classrooms and other academic settings, while art serves as an extra-curricular method of entertainment and amusement that is usually done outside of classroom walls. After all, it has been scientifically proven that the left side of one’s brain is the “logical” side that pertains more to critical thinking, mathematics, and science, while the right side of the brain is know to be the creative and artistic side. With this idea in mind, it is quite difficult to think that science and art can somehow be related, especially because different parts of the brain are separately accessed when engaging in science related material versus artistic material.

Therefore, I must admit that I initially found solace in reading Ashley Taylor’s article titled “The Art of the Brain: ‘Brainbow’ and the Difficulty of Distinguishing Science and Art” and seeing that her hypotheses seemed to match my idea that science and art have little to nothing to do with one another. However, after further reading the article, I learned that art and science are indeed connected and are by no means mutually exclusive. One thing that Taylor mentions in her article is that initially, she would have thought that science and art are different because science is conducted by following the steps of the scientific method and finding a conclusion from the data obtained in the end while art is done in a single step and the purpose of a work of art is often up for discussion. However, biologist Jefffrey Lichtman explained that often, science does not follow the conventional steps of the scientific method. Rather, science research is often sparked by an observation that eventually leads to formulation of a hypothesis that often does not have a definite conclusion. So too, artists observe something that inspires them to produce a work of art that can be interpreted differently by each observer. Thus this article proved that science and art have a lot more in common than what initially meets the eye.

The second article titled “Art as a Way of Knowing” by Marina McDougall, Bronwyn Bevan, and Robert Semper went on to discuss not only the similarities between art and science, but how art can be used to further advance science and make it accessible to people who would otherwise have no interest in it. The article explains that through the use of art’s aesthetics, it is effective at engaging learners and art “enchants and invites participation” (7) through its ability to provide hands-on experiences. This way, science can be accessible and appreciated by people who would otherwise express no interest in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. This was directly seen in the Midwood community gardens project in which the planters were decorated not only to attract the children in the park and invite them to learn about the planting mechanisms that were enclosed in the planters, but so that students who were learning about the plants could also be directly involved in the creation of these planters. Art can thus be crucial to engagement, participation, and overall understanding of science and its contributions to the world around us.