Plants in Focus

The intricate beauty and complexity of the natural world come into focus at North Carolina State University this fall in a series of events designed to invite the artistic and scientific exploration of plants.

The result of an interdisciplinary partnership between the Gregg Museum of Art & Design and the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative (N.C. PSI), the series focuses on the beauty, function and diversity of plants. It includes exhibitions, an artist-in-residence program and public events.

N.C. PSI Executive Director Adrian Percy sees the offerings as a way for the initiative to continue to encourage creativity and interdisciplinarity around solving complex agricultural challenges.

This partnership provides us with an opportunity to add another string to our students’ bow.

“Many of the problems that our farmers face are very, very complex and are not going to be solved by one single approach. When it comes to tackling such issues, we need individuals with a really broad set of experiences and the ability to look across many different areas — whether it’s engineering, biology, chemistry or the arts, the humanities or social sciences,” Percy says.

“This partnership provides us with an opportunity to add another string to our students’ bow, making them more rounded individuals able to think deeply from their scientific and engineering disciplines and creatively from their exposure to the arts.”

Fusing Art With Plant Sciences Research

Three NC State graduate students are gaining such exposure through a new artist-in-residence program with Leah Sobsey, an artist, curator and associate professor of photography at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

During the residency, Sobsey is shadowing three selected students from three colleges. Each of the students conducts research related to the plant sciences:

• Hannah Pil, a genetics student in the College of Sciences, studies maize and its wild ancestor, teosinte, in search of genes that could lead to improved corn varieties.
  
• Mohammadreza Zare, a chemical and biomolecular engineering student in the College of Engineering, has developed a new way to fabricate electrodes for advanced sensors that farmers could use to monitor factors that influence plant health.
  
• Adarsha Devihalli, a forestry and genetics student in the College of Natural Resources, is part of a major NC State project aimed at developing Fraser firs that are capable of withstanding Phytophthora root rot, a soil-borne disease that poses a major threat to North Carolina’s Christmas trees.

Gregg Museum Director Sara Segerlin says she looks forward to witnessing the bonds that form between the students and Sobsey as they work together on art to be displayed at NC State’s Plant Sciences Building.

The residency … embodies our community-engaged mission: art and science working hand-in-hand as practical tools to nurture both the land and communities that depend on it.

“At the Gregg Museum and Arts NC State, we see creativity as a vital bridge — connecting people, ideas and disciplines to reveal deeper truths and transform how we experience the world,” Segerlin says. “The residency exchange with the N.C. PSI embodies our community-engaged mission: art and science working hand-in-hand as practical tools to nurture both the land and communities that depend on it.

“Above all, it is the unfolding journey of arts-based inquiry and lived experience that will resonate through the installation — cultivating a richer, more connected understanding of our shared world.”

Sobsey, who has spent two decades working in partnership with scientists and using plants as both her subject and medium, says she’s excited about the residency. 

“I have a multidisciplinary experimental photographic practice that reaches into the fields of nature, science, and design,” Sobsey says. “This newly formed collaboration with N.C. PSI and researchers Hannah Pil,  Mohammadreza Zare and Adarsha Devihalli is an exciting opportunity for me to create new artworks that keep art and science in dialog.”

About the Exhibits

The plant-focused arts and sciences initiative also includes two exhibits at the Gregg Museum:

• “The House of Ideas: Plants in Art,” on view through Aug. 1, 2026, is a participatory learning lab that uncovers the artistic representation of plants in our lives and in the natural world. It features objects from the museum’s collection that depict the roles of plants from nourishment and communal living to the scientific study of human health.
  
• “In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss,” showing from Sept. 10 to Jan. 31, 2026, immerses viewers in writer Henry David Thoreau’s study of plant life and biodiversity. The exhibition originated through a collaboration with the Harvard Museum of Natural History and offers a deeper understanding of plant life in North Carolina.
  
  The exhibit’s co-curators are Sobsey, Marsha Gordon, NC State professor of film studies; Emily Meineke, an NC State Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology alumna who serves as an assistant professor of urban landscape ecology at the University of California, Davis; and Robin Vuchnich, NC State College of Design new media artist and lecturer. Jory Weintraub, science engagement director with NC State’s Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs, supported the efforts. 

Ways to Engage

Members of the NC State community and the public invited to take part in several related events this fall:

• Come to the Kickoff Conversation: In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers with exhibition curators from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Gregg Museum. > Sign up
  
• Attend an opening reception for “In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers” and “The Halls of a Changing Sea” from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Gregg. > Learn more and register
  
• Join us at a N.C. PSI reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Plant Sciences Building to see Sobsey’s artwork and hear from graduate students about their research. > Register
  
• Celebrate the connections between art and science at Rooted: A Community Festival of Nature and Stories, the Gregg Museum’s first outdoor festival, from 4 to 8 p.m. Nov. 8. > Details
  

Special thanks to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for supporting the Gregg Museum’s Art & Science initiative.

This post was originally published in Plant Sciences Initiative.