Education has focused full years on science, technology, engineering and math, championing the STEM movement. But are we missing out on creative thinking? The STEAM movement includes the arts and encourages people to use their whole brains and surely that's what we need to come up with the best minds to solve problems in space. [Music] Welcome to Team Miner's Deep Space from N2K Networks. I'm Alice Caruth. Our guest today is artist Maria Lannis. She works with astronaut Nicole Stott to use art to connect students to space. Together they founded the Space for Art Foundation. I wanted to know how an artist and an astronaut came to work together to create such an engaging outreach program. But before we came to that, I asked Maria to explain to us how she began engaging with students through her art. Well, you know, everything in life to me has been like a gift and I had been working on a series of paintings called Infusions. And through these paintings, I got invited to work as an artist in residence in Kastapkorea. And the paintings are about a personal experience that my father-in-law, he had melanoma and I was taking him to the chemo treatments. And during these treatments, I imagined how his blood would mix with the chemotherapy and I painted what I imagined. So I took my paintings to Croatia and as my surprise, when I arrived and I set up the whole gallery with my paintings, the opening night, nobody showed up. And, you know, as artists, I guess we are prepared for that. People come and, you know, that's okay. We can take critiques like that. So then, you know, one of my friends from Bosnia, she was there. She's the one that introduced me to this program. And the day after that, you know, she left and she left me by myself in Croatia and I didn't speak the language and I was a little bit overwhelmed by what had happened the night before. So I just said, you know, I'm just going to have coffee and I went to a coffee shop and then, and then the photographer that was at the exhibit came to my table and he said, "Hi." And as we started to talk, he started questioning me about, you know, why I was there, who paid me. And I understood then that there was a little bit of a problem for me being there and then I understood why nobody had come to the exhibit. And then I thought, okay, this man can be my friend or can be my enemy. So I decided that he would be my friend. And I, you know, he showed me around the city and he told me the story. And I was thinking, you know, this has been a really difficult, those were difficult days, but I decided to make the best out of it, right? So the next day, the mayor of the city, he called me and he said, "Okay, as part of this program, your job is to give a class to the kids in the local kindergarten, the English speaking class." And I was taken there to the kindergarten and I showed up and the teacher was surprised of my being there because it was not, you know, scheduled visit. And she said, "Okay, you know, why don't you introduce yourself to the kids?" And, you know, from the mayor's office to the school, I had to think of a plan because I am not a teacher. I had never taught little kids. And I was thinking, what can I make that it's engaging to them? So my idea from my five-minute walk from the mayor's office to the little school was, "Okay, I'm going to make a theme called the Cats of Castap and the kids are going to tell me the story of the city through the touristic places that they're going to draw and the cats are going to tell the story of that place." So I go into the classroom and I introduce this project to the kids and the teacher and then I had to introduce myself where I came from. So at that moment, I saw myself as the 11-year-old self that I was when I came to this country, when I came to live in Maryland, and I had to make the same introduction to strangers to, you know, fifth graders. So I began with that same speech as I had when I was little, but the difference was that I had a book about Ecuador in paintings through this artist, Wayasa Min. And I showed the kids the city, my city, through art and they got it. They understood the project. They had lots of questions and the teacher was convinced that this was a good idea. So the next day when we started working on the project, she surprised me with all the information about Ecuador and the Ecuadorian flag and we started to work and that was just an incredible moment for me because I noticed their engagement, I noticed their interest, and even the teachers were surprised about how the kids were behaving. So after the second day, third day, the teacher said, "Let's go to the gallery to see your work." And I went to the gallery with the kids and as we walked in, you know, my paintings are colorful. So the mood as soon as they walked in and saw the paintings, they saw dragons and incredible things, right? Color and things like that. So the teacher asked me, "What is this about?" And I said, "Oh, this is about my experience with my father-in-law." But I never, since I've had never had an audience, you know, that was so young. I just told them the truth, what it was about. I didn't, you know, say, you know, I just told them the way it was. And the moment I finished, there was a very uncomfortable silence in the whole gallery. And the teacher was not happy with me because she told me, "Why didn't you tell me that this was the subject?" And then I said, "I didn't know." And all of a sudden, the little kids start raising their hands and they start telling their own personal stories about their parents, their grandparents' health, their own health. And at that moment, they understood what art was about and what and how they were supposed to tell me their stories through their artwork. So when we came back to the classroom, they had a very clear idea of what they were going to tell me and what they were supposed to do. So when we finished the project, I said, "I need to exhibit this artwork, the kids' artwork in the gallery with me." And the teachers were like, "No, that's not possible." And I said, "No, no, no, the process of being an artist is exhibiting, so they need to have that experience." So we got it cleared through the mayor's office. They accepted. I hung the work. And the closing night, to everybody's surprise, the gallery was packed. And everybody showed up, the newspapers, the photographers, except the one that came beginning night. And then I thought how important it was for them to learn about other cultures and for other cultures to learn about this beautiful city called Kastav. And I came back to Washington and I got with the local school in Ashburn, Virginia, with my nephew's school, and we started the first exchange. So the kids did the first exchange. We did a Skype call. This is 10 years ago, right before, you know, nobody was using this in the classroom. And then when the kids saw me via Skype, they were so happy. They couldn't believe they were looking at me. And there was a little girl in this classroom in Kastav who was adopted from an African country. So she was the only black girl. And when she seasoned the classroom in Virginia, there was another little girl that looked just like her. So at that moment, she reacted and she started touching the screen and she said, "You look like me." And she started doing, you know, cartwheels of, you know, somebody, you know, she couldn't believe that there was somebody like looking like her on the other side of the world. So at that moment, it was clear to me that I had to continue with this kind of exchanges because there was a difference. So, you know, with 25 students, you know, it grew to 3,000. We'll be right back. How on earth did you and Nicole come together? How did your paths cross? Our paths crossed in the strangest and nicest way. Through art. It happened through art. Because before Nicole, I had my own initiative called Project Postcard. And I was working with different schools from around the world and we had an exhibit in Dallas Airport called One World. And it was, you know, five schools from Ecuador, Virginia, Uganda, Iran. And it was a display, you know, a 30 foot long display with little windows and each window had a postcard. So Nicole that day was coming back from Houston from working on her own project and she saw it and she tagged me. And that moment when I saw this, you know, tag on my Instagram account, I was completely, I was like, what is this astro-nical thing, you know? And as soon as I click on the picture, I see the astronaut and I'm like, oh my God, an astronaut likes my work. And my first thought was first of shock, you know, that somebody so big and important to me would be liking my work. And then the second idea was, this is an opportunity for all the kids that I work with to learn about space. And, you know, since I already did the airport, the next thing, you know, is to do space. So I said, you know, and a message I thank Nicole for tagging me. And I asked her, is it possible that, you know, my kids that I work with, exchanging artwork, can they send postcards of space to the astronauts? And she replied, yes. And from that moment, we started working. Now you're taking these postcards to space. How on earth does that work? Tell me about the postcards to space program. We've been very, very lucky. You know, first we started our own postcards of space in 2018. And then, you know, Blue Origin, they started their own project. And we engaged with them and they invited us to participate with Club for the Future. And we have been working with them, sending postcards to space. They give us the template. And it's an amazing program because now we can broaden it up. We give the postcards to the kids. They make their drawings. And, you know, we send them to Club for the Future. And whenever the next flight is, they send them up to space and then the postcards are stamped, you know, and they are sent back to the kids. So now they have something personal, you know, it's something, it's meaningful to them, you know, that they got so far with, you know, with such a, with their own personal touch. So it's really nice. I love that. And it extends it out beyond just being your community and your culture, which I love, but then to be able to have a piece of space to hold, you know, to hold on to, to have as your own. What an exceptional thing for these students around the world. It is, you know, before, you know, I used to think it looks beyond the horizon, but now it really, we have gone completely beyond the horizons. And their outlook on the future is so different and it's added value to their education and, you know, experiences. Absolutely. And you and Nicole collaborate on Space for Art Foundation. Yes, we formed the Space for Art. Can you tell me a little bit about that foundation? Well, after working on the Space for Art project, we decided to create a foundation. So we called it the Space for Art, and we create a space in our projects for kids in hospitals, in schools, in refugee camps. And we promote healing through art. And hopefully, you know, when we get to work with these kids in the hospitals, again, it's another transforming idea because we're, you know, from the difficult to, you know, from the difficult moment in their lives they're going through, we give them a time where hopefully they can forget about that and they can, again, look beyond. Yeah, I love that. And you guys have done a series of spacesuits with those students' arts. Can you tell us a bit about the spacesuits that you guys make? Well, each space suit is different. And Nicole started, you know, the spacesuits with M.D. Anderson and our also co-founder, Ian Sian. And it started small, you know, with just kids, you know, with that same idea, kids' artwork, put them in a spacesuit. And luckily, they were able to send them to space. So it's the same simple idea and to gather the artwork from different hospitals and just, you know, have ILC Dover create the spacesuits, which even gives it greater meaning because what they do is incredible. When the kids learn that and when they see the final product, it's mind-blowing, you know, to participate in something like that, to give them a moment like that, to give them a memory like that, to make them part of history like that. It's priceless. And rewarding, I'm sure. Rewarding, you know, for everybody who participates. Yeah. And how many of them have been to space so far? Three so far. Incredible. And how many of you made all together? About five. Wow. And where can people find out about the spacesuits? They can find out through our website, the spaceforartfoundation.org. And we also have the latest spacesuit. Well, the latest spacesuit is called Infinity, but before that it was called Beyond. And with our Beyond spacesuit, we did it through during COVID time. So we couldn't go into hospitals and work with the kids. So we made, in a way, virtual, you know, the kids just had to send us the pictures of the drawings. And we were lucky enough, well, we worked hard. We were able to capture a drawing from every country on the planet. So everybody's represented there. And we went a step beyond the spacesuit. And we made a virtual spacesuit. So everybody can, you know, go to our website and look at the spacesuit, click on it, where they will see the spacesuit and they can click on each picture and see where the picture came from, which country, which organization. And it's a great way to learn about geography, but also for the kids who participated to see wherever they are in the world, their artwork. How have you found the students reacting? Having changed from being artwork focused on their Earth-based neighborhoods to artwork that's going to space. Have you seen any sort of transition? Has that been more inspiring, less inspiring, more engaging? You know, kids love to tell their stories. And it's a mix because some kids will send stories. They continue telling their stories where they come from, telling the stories to the astronauts. Right? And they also have questions about space, about aliens, about what they eat. So now it's gone, you know, to another layer, right? Now they can talk about, now the subject is space and what happens, you know, from aliens to how you live there. Yeah, I mean, what a great way to bring students in and getting them engaged in space. If people want to find out more about all your projects, where is it they can find all of your artwork? On our website, which is www.spaceforartfoundation.org. Excellent. Thank you so much, Maria, for your time. I really appreciate it. No, thank you. I'm so happy and you know, anything that we can do will be happy. They can always come to our website and engage in our project and send postcards to space and be part of this great experience. [Music] That's it for Team Miner's Deep Space, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. You can email us at space@n2k.com or submit the survey in the show notes. Your feedback ensures we deliver the information that keeps you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. This episode's Associate Producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our Executive Producer is Jennifer Ivan. Our Executive Editor is Brandon Kauff. Simone Petrella is our President. Hita Kilpie is our Publisher. And I'm Alice Carruth. Thanks for listening. [Music] [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
