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BIG NEW PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Our Changing Seas • An Atlantic and Caribbean Coral Reef Story
I am thrilled to announce that I will be creating a new rendition of Our Changing Seas for the lobby of the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center’s new Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Research!
While the original Our Changing Seas – my large-scale ceramic coral reef wall installation currently at AAAS in Washington, D.C. – was inspired by reefs of the Indo-Pacific, this BRAND NEW PIECE will draw from the beautiful yet threatened reefs of the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. As in the original, this sculpture will show a transition from healthy to degraded coral reef with a sense of hope for recovery.
The layout of the new piece will be multi-dimensional with the transition occurring as the viewer walks around the piece. Free-standing at over eight feet tall and branching out to approximately five and a half feet by two and a half feet wide, Our Changing Seas: An Atlantic and Caribbean Coral Reef Story will highlight the major threats impacting coral reefs while celebrating the unique forms and colors of the corals, sponges, and other invertebrates that compose reef systems in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean.
Nova Southeastern University’s new Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Research just opened on September 27th at the NSU Oceanographic Center campus and is the only research facility in the nation dedicated entirely to reef ecosystem science. The Oceanographic Center is home to several institutes including The National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), which was established by Congress in 1998 to assess, monitor, and restore coral reefs through research and education. As one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s external Coral Reef Institute partners, NCRI has long supported NOAA’s mission by providing outstanding scientific research to support federal, state, and local management and conservation in providing local, regional, national, and international research products that can offer solutions to the coral reef crisis. The new Center of Excellence provides both urgently needed state-of-the-art research facilities and consequently expanded scientific capacity (NSU, 2011). My new rendition of Our Changing Seas will be finished and installed in the lobby by the end of January, 2013.
