Blue Origin foundation boosts ‘ultimate vision’ of space, art
Jancy Mcphee kept meeting people who did not know about the International Space Station. At the time, humans had been living in space for nearly 10 years. She wondered how people could not know.
Her day job was managing scientific research for NASA’S Human Research Program, but Mcphee couldn’t let go of this question.
“I was getting more and more interested in how we talk about space,” Mcphee said. “They have to be motivated. They have to care in order to remember the details given to them about the future of space exploration.”
So Mcphee, whose hobbies have always revolved around music and theater, created a student art competition to motivate a younger generation. This contest accompanied an international human spaceflight symposium held in Houston in 2011, and she received 550 entries from 22 countries.
This contest was followed by another, and another, until the program became too large to be included with her day job at the nonprofit research corporation Universities Space Research Association.
Mcphee created the Sciart Exchange nonprofit in 2015. And this year, it was one of 19 nonprofits to be offered $1 million each in grant money from Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, its foundation focused on STEM education.
“Now we have a little bit of seed funding that will allow us to increase our capabilities,” Mcphee said, “and, ideally, to really have a greater impact and start moving even further into our ultimate vision.”
That vision starts by getting people excited about space exploration, making them feel welcome and inviting them to contribute to the future in space. Then Sciart Exchange wants to train people in communication, creative problem solving and collaboration. Ultimately, it hopes to get people from a variety of backgrounds — scientists, engineers, painters, musicians and others — to work together to solve future challenges on Earth and in space.
Today, Sciart Exchange creates competitions that ask children and adults to create paintings, music, films and stories around broad questions about the future of space. This creativity is shared through live performances and displays around the world, which helps engage an even broader audience about what’s happening in space.
The questions vary, with past competitions focused on the International Space Station and the emerging commercial space sector; the exploration and colonization of the moon, Mars and beyond; and the use of space, science and technology to benefit humanity.
But artists often echo the same themes: protecting the Earth from strife and climate change, building cities on other planets and exploring space as one international community.
In 2012, Arundhati Chowdhury entered a contest with her story titled “Back to Home.” It’s about a child growing up on another planet who learns that Earth was destroyed by pollution and world wars. She’s then inspired to become a scientist to reverse the destruction her ancestors caused on Earth.
Chowdhury is from India and submitted this story when she was 13. She won first place for Overall Literature ages 10 to 13 and first place for Short Story Non-native English Literature ages 10 to 13. She was flown to Cologne, Germany, for an award ceremony in July 2013, where she met rocket engineers, scientists and researchers who changed her life.
“The moment I put my feet onto the soil, I knew that I wanted to be here and I knew that I wanted to study physics,” Chowdhury said. “I found a goal that I could work toward. And I knew in my mind, ‘Hey, I won a competition hosted by NASA. I could do this, too.’ ”
Chowdhury, now 22, is at the University of Cologne working on a master’s degree in physics.
In 2018, Ricardo Bernardini entered an adult competition called Project Mars. Gareth Edwards, director of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” was among the judges.
Bernardini had been a graphic designer in Orlando, Fla., who made a living by creating websites and logos. He wanted to work in special effects and animation, but he couldn’t get his foot in the door.
The competition was a chance to meet Edwards, so Bernardini wrote and directed a five-minute short film about the first mother on Mars. His film encapsulated the mother’s guilt knowing her daughter would never see Earth and her pride knowing what her daughter could explore and accomplish on Mars.
The movie was selected by judges as the most inspirational film, and Bernardini began submitting it to film contests around the world. This got him work with Netflix, Disney, Hulu and EA Sports.
It affected his family, too. Bernardini’s daughter Vicky, who acted in the film, became fascinated with math and science — previously two of her least favorite subjects. His daughter Emilia and son Leo, also in the film, can point out constellations and have spread their love of space to their friends (Bernardini can’t take Leo to a rocket launch without also bringing his son’s two best friends).
“This contest was the door, the gateway, to all of this,” he said. “All of the sudden, things started to happen because of this short film.”
The grant money from Blue Origin’s foundation will help Sciart Exchange grow and reach more people.
Mcphee, who has a doctorate in biophysics, has been the only employee since it opened in 2015, and she currently splits her time between Sciart Exchange and NASA. Through her affiliation with The Aerospace Corp., Mcphee is associate chief scientist for the Human Research Program at the Johnson Space Center.
She would like to hire three to four people to help Sciart Exchange maintain sustainable funding, communicate to a broader audience and host activities, training and events that promote art-science collaborations that benefit humanity on Earth and in space.
“This nonprofit is definitely an important outgrowth of myself,” she said, “but it’s time for me to step back and let a larger group of people help shape its next phase.”