Arts and Your Major Returns to Show Connections Between Art, STEM

For the second straight year, Arts NC State, NC State Libraries and the NC State Arts Village are putting on a two-week event to show students in colleges across campus how their chosen majors intersect with art. 

Back by popular demand, Arts and Your Major is returning after its highly successful debut last November, with presentations from guest speakers across NC State about the intersection of arts and STEM set to start on Wednesday, Nov. 8. 

Emily Kasprzak started her role as the director of the NC State Arts Village – a residence hall on campus that houses 150 students who are involved in art, but not necessarily as a major – in February 2022. 

In speaking with students who applied to join the village, Kasprzak found that many said that even though they were studying engineering, technology or other fields, they still wanted to be involved with the arts. 

“They just kept speaking of their major and their art as two separate entities,” Kasprzak said. “And it occurred to me that those things aren’t separate, and, in fact, in a lot of areas, they can enhance one another.”

Those things aren’t separate, and, in fact, in a lot of areas, they can enhance one another.

The programs are open to all NC State students, not just those living in the Arts Village. Kasprzak said that, last year, about 200 students attended all of the presentations during national STEM month. 

Kasprzak said that not only was Arts and Your Major a hit with students, but that they wanted to see more presentations. This year’s event will feature seven campus-wide presentations and two Arts Village specific events. 

Arts and Your Major is a way for students to find connections between the work in their specific majors and the arts they otherwise wouldn’t have made. For example, one of the presenters – Layla El-Khoury, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering – will show how she used her work on streambed erosion to choreograph a dance. 

“That’s incredible, that she took agricultural engineering research and then made a dance out of it,” Kasprzak said. “That’s something that I never would have thought about.”

Arts and Your Major is also a way for students to learn about using art to raise awareness for important scientific issues – climate change chief among them. 

The first presentation on Nov. 8 will feature Department of Public Administration professor Chris Galik talking about climate change and the intersection of public art.

In the description, Galik wrote, “arts have a vital role in helping society voice, frame, and comprehend the tectonic changes associated with global climate change. In this short workshop, we will explore how the arts interface with a constantly evolving technological, political, economic and social landscape.”

“Art is emotional,” Kasprzak said. “You can put data in front of people and you can put tables in front of people, but when you use art, it’s emotional, and you have this emotional reaction.”

Kasprzak hopes that attending the presentations continues to reinforce the message to all NC State students that, even though they aren’t studying art as a major, art can still play a major role in their academic experience. 

“I think it just highlights all of these different areas that I never would have thought overlap,” Kasprzak said. “I’m sure that students feel the same. Any time that I can illustrate that these two things that you love and are passionate about can come together and enhance your experience, that makes me really excited.” 

Any time that I can illustrate that these two things that you love and are passionate about can come together and enhance your experience, that makes me really excited.

Through the series of presentations, NC State professors and graduate students reveal existing examples of the arts and STEM working cohesively.

“It’s happening already on our campus in a lot of ways that we don’t think about,” Kasprzak said. 

For students in other fields who want to remain involved with the arts, in addition to learning about and getting involved in the projects highlighted by Arts and Your Major, the Arts Village remains a great resource to do so, and Kasprzak hopes Arts and Your Major also continues to bring awareness of the Arts Village as an option for students. 

Learn more about NC State’s Living and Learning Villages, including the Arts Village.