Art Showcase To Display Connection Between Arts, STEM

By Cordie Troxell

The STEM Arts Showcase is scheduled for Oct. 9 from 6-8 p.m. in the Mabee Center.

Created by STEMedia and help from Dr. William Smith II, vice president of academic administration, and the SWAU STEM Club, this showcase is made to demonstrate the connection between STEM and the Arts. The showcase will have participants from Southwestern Adventist University, Chisolm Trail Academy, and Keene Independent School District, displaying students’ and professors’ artworks all connected and about STEM. Also, few live performances will be happening in the Wharton Auditorium.

The STEM Arts Showcase will be hosted in the Mabee Center at SWAU, from 6-8 p.m. on Oct. 9. The Founder and CEO of STEMedia, Dr. Nehemiah Mabry and his team at STEMedia, a company whose focus is to make creative content for the science, technology, engineering, and math community, are hosting the showcase.

Mabry and STEMedia are working with SWAU, CTA, and Keene ISD to host an art show with the focus being science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and the link between that and arts. Students will be able to express their interpretations and ideas of STEM in ways most usually do not think about. This Showcase celebrates imagination, discovery, and student achievement.

The showcase will feature a broad mix of live performances from speeches, tap dancing, to live music, video games, art, and spoken words, all performed by students or professors that encompass the intertwining of art and STEM. All the participants’ art pieces will be on display inside the art gallery of Mabee Center.

According to SWAU student Azariah Easey, if you are creative and an analytical person, your artistic skills can enhance how you approach STEM subjects. Also, to connect the arts with STEM, consistently use creative thinking and apply what you learn from STEM topics to your artistic practice.

The showcase is not only special for the students but for the professors as well. In multiple classes professors are working this event into their lesson plan, challenging the way students outside of the STEM degree view.

Dr. Renard Doneskey, director of honors and QEP at SWAU, will participate in the showcase, along with Dr. Steve Jones, professor and chair of history and social science, and Kaleb Gonzalez, a senior honors student at SWAU. Their piece will be a demonstration of the expression of nature/mood through music, with Doneskey, Jones, and Gonzalez demonstrating it through bass, drums, and guitar.

“What I think is not obvious to many is how creative all humans are, including those STEM-minded people like biochemistry majors and nursing folk,” says Doneskey. “The human mind is creative and that is a part of us as God's creation. So, of course, STEM folk have creative sides.”