Two NMU professors have teamed up to create a course exploring the connection between the arts and sciences. Taimur Cleary is an associate professor of drawing and painting, and Jill Leonard is a professor of biology. On the surface, those two disciplines may seem wholly unrelated, but Leonard and Cleary have discovered a strong overlap between their respective fields.

Their work together began almost by accident. Leonard was contacted by The Grand Rapids Art Museum, who had commissioned artist Alexis Rockman to create some art based on the Great Lakes. Rockman was traveling to speak with knowledgeable scientists and learn more about the lakes.

“The origins of this class are, I don’t know, four or five years in the making from Jill asking me if I knew who Alexis Rockman was, and I did,” Cleary said. “He’s a really cool, very famous painter.”

Cleary and Leonard collaborated to host an event at which Rockman spoke to NMU students. The professors also contributed to A Dive Into the Great Lakes Cycle, a series of modules and interactive text that explores Rockman’s work from both scientific and artistic perspectives. This prompted the professors to discuss the overlap between arts and sciences, which sparked the idea for the class they are developing now. The course is an asynchronous, online general education class. The class will not only highlight the connections between art and science but also encourage students to apply what they learn about art and science to other fields.

“It’s really designed for any student,” Leonard said. “So you can be a science student, you can be an art student or you can be any other major on campus.” On the most basic level art and science are united by two concepts: Creativity and problem-solving. Leonard used herself and Cleary as an example.

“Whether he’s trying to paint something and figure out the best way to approach it and express what he wants, or I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with the ecology of my fish, in both cases we have to be creative and come up with new ideas and be open to new approaches,” Leonard said.

For Cleary, research is an important part of art, both in teaching and in his own work. “If you’re a professional and you care about what you do, you have a research practice,” Cleary said.

Leonard is quick to point out what may seem like a subversion of expectations.“If you didn’t notice, the artist just told you to do research and the scientist told you to be creative,” Leonard said.

Of course, the two professors see this as yet another example of how their respective disciplines intertwine. The course is the first of its kind to be offered at NMU. The title will be “INTT 222: Art Meets Science.” The asynchronous online format of the course works well for both professors.

“We did an online teaching fellowship over the summer to support making it an online class, so we got some good support there,” Cleary said. “The class doesn’t exist yet with students in it, but it’s coming into existence as an Educat shell.”

Once the course is underway in the summer, the professors are eager to see how students react and interact with the class. The class will place an emphasis on discussion, which is especially important given the course’s online format. Unlike classes that were forced to move online due to the pandemic, INTT 222 has the benefit of being built as an online course from the very beginning.

“It’s different than what we’re doing online now,” Leonard said. “It’s a designed online course, always intended to be that way.”

Without the pressure of suddenly adapting to the Internet, the course material can make use of the less time sensitive nature of online learning. “It’s the kind of thing where students can move at a little bit of a different pace and interact with each other in very different ways,” Leonard said.

In fact, the greatest challenge Leonard and Cleary faced when creating their class was finding the time to do it. Both professors have busy schedules. Teaching the course online is the most convenient option for both of them.

That said, Leonard and Cleary aren’t opposed to teaching the class in person. “Every once in a while I allow myself to daydream and believe that we’re teaching it in person because it would be even cooler to be able to teach it in person at some point,” Cleary said.

If and when that day will arrive remains to be seen. For now, Leonard and Cleary are looking forward to teaching the class together for the first time in the summer semester. There is some anticipation as they navigate uncharted waters. “The way students will interact, that’s the joy of it,” Cleary said. “That’s the experiment and the variable that I can never fully understand and just research and prepare for.” Leonard agrees. She is excited to see how students react to the course and interact with one another. “This is an experiment for me,” Leonard said. “I just want to see what happens with it and I hope it will be well received.”

More information about INTT 222: Art Meets Science can be found on Leonard’s website.