YOUR CHALLENGE:

Imagine turning a dry spreadsheet of numbers into an artistic design that gives you goosebumps. It might sound crazy, but that’s part of the job of scientific charts and graphs. They help visualize and tell entire stories using numbers and values that, on their own, seem incomprehensible or boring. However, science often struggles to communicate deeper meanings and interpretations in the same way that the visual arts do. Just as a good painting pulls you in and encourages you to take time to interpret its meaning, we want you to innovate how we communicate data by taking a page from the art world. Artists like Jill Pelto, Mona Chalabi, and Diane Burko produce illustrations and installations that combine art and science to evoke messages buried within numbers and figures. Taking inspiration from artists like these, create an innovative way to communicate local plant science. 

Analyze one of the provided local research datasets that tells a story of restoration of south Florida’s rare habitat, the pine rocklands, from the Pine Rockland Working Group, a collaborative network of biologists, researchers, and conservationists dedicated to protecting and restoring the globally imperiled pine rockland ecosystems of South Florida.  Visualize the data by plotting, mapping, or creating a chart. Then layer an original artistic design on top of the visualized data using whatever 2D media you prefer to illustrate a conclusion in the data. Write an artist’s statement that explains the artistic choices you made and what your piece communicates about the Pine Rocklands research you chose. The final work should be scientifically accurate and visually striking, built around a single clear takeaway from the dataset.  Artwork will be displayed at the Annual 2026 Pine Rocklands Conference. All entrants will be invited to present their work in person during a conference session with local and national botanists and researchers.

CHALLENGE RESOURCES

• Examples of art and data visualization (Jill Pelto)
• tps://www.data-to-art.com/
• How to Write an Artist Statement
• https://hyperallergic.com/can-art-change-attitudes-toward-climate-change/