By Amelia Bickel
Elm Staff Writer
MuSE, a community museum located on 210 S Cross Street that hosts rotating exhibits by community members and Washington College students, faculty, and staff, is highlighting WC teaching, experiential learning, and research through an exhibit proposal process.
“MuSE is really trying to connect with the community and…create a place where you can learn and educate yourself about different issues,” MuSE intern senior Kaitlin Osucha said.
Associate Director of Civic Engagement at the Center for Environment and Society Laura Chamberlin said that humans have become intertwined with nature, so it is important to consider the options for sustainable integration of human activity into the environment. One example is the implementation of man-made nest boxes as a response to the decline of naturally occurring nest cavities in trees due to deforestation.
“We are really looking at environmental problems and how to solve them,” Chamberlin said.
MuSE aims to bring awareness to such issues and innovations in interdisciplinary ways. Taking this approach to scientific exploration draws different people to the cause who may not be immediately interested otherwise.
According to Chamberlin, when scientific study is combined with other disciplines, it helps “fuel the work of scientists by sharing it through art…and highlight the beauty of why we’re doing this.”
Recently, MuSE opened a call for exhibit proposals, which currently rotate about two times a year. Chamberlin encourages those who have an idea for a proposal to contact her first, as tackling an exhibit is a rewarding but time-consuming endeavor that is best done with a strong team.
“Anyone can apply,” Chamberlin said. “We really encourage folks to work together…whether it be students working with faculty or students working with staff.”
MuSE’s current exhibit is a series by contemporary visual artist Deirdre Murphy, the Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory’s current artist in residence who will also be designing two commission pieces for FBBO in the coming year. One will be a functional sculpture that looks out on the Chester River and the other will be a series of paintings for the new FBBO building.
On Oct. 8, Murphy spoke at WC’s World Migratory Bird Day event, which was held at MuSE.
“It was a no-brainer to team up with the town and to hold our event at MuSE to spotlight Deirdre’s art and to welcome folks from the College community as well as the town of Chestertown to celebrate birds,” Associate Director of FBBO Maren Gimpel said.
Murphy’s work connects art and science through mediums of painting, printmaking, and sculpture, which is not a new practice.
“Before we had photography [in science], we had artists,” Murphy said.
Through her work, she explores the effects of the climate crisis on avian migration, nesting structures, and ecosystems.
“The Nest Alchemy” series, which is currently on display at MuSE, specifically illustrates the architecture of birds’ nests as they evolve throughout the seasons and the similarity between the structure of songbird nests and that of dendritic neurons. She described “The Nest Alchemy” as a departure from her usual work’s focus on climate change.
During the fall of 2020, Murphy was co-teaching a course on the visualization of the brain with Lehigh University professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Jennifer Swan. She began to notice similarities between the structure of neuron clusters and the structure of the songbirds’s nests that she would see on walks.
She found the nests’s architecture stunning, and so the concept for “The Nest Alchemy” was born.
Murphy based her art on video references and uses dynamic gestural strokes to capture the energy of the songbirds’ nest building and beautiful vibrant colors to depict the four seasons.
She encourages artists to “keep doing what [they are] doing” because “science and art is a perfect pairing.” While scientists research and discover new ideas, “visual thinkers can weave these ideas into stories” to communicate them to the world.
“The Nest Alchemy” exhibition at MuSE will continue through December on First Fridays and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. The exhibit also features FBBO’s bird banding work and real samples of a bird nest, nest box, and bird safe glass.
The museum’s upcoming exhibits — “Chesapeake Change Makers” by Chesapeake Semester students and “The Wonders and Wanderings of Northern England” by students who researched abroad at Kiplin Hall last summer — open in February 2025.
Photo courtesy of Kent County, Maryland.
Photo Caption: MuSE’s exhibit space is located downtown on the same street as the Sultana Education Foundation.