Visiting artist documents seed saving from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.
About 50 attendees, from students to community members, came to the opening reception of Dornith Doherty’s “Seeds of Art” exhibit Friday, Jan. 30. Doherty’s work documents seed banks, where species of plants are cloned and archived to be saved from climate change, mismanagement and other factors.
“Seed banks are trying to save biodiversity from climate change, but also from disease agents or mismanagement or political instability,” Doherty said.
Doherty met with both art and science students the day before the reception to teach them about her photographic process and seed saving itself.
Art professor and gallery director Gary Goldberg said he always prefers to bring artists who appeal to a wider range of students, not just those in his college.
“We’re a liberal arts university and we think the arts really have a message beyond really just the art area, and really every artist’s work can apply to history or politics or things like that,” Goldberg said. “Her work is a little easier to make that connection.”
Art senior Kelly Land said part of the power of Doherty’s work is its ability to spread awareness of seed saving.
“I bet you some of the people that were at the opening today, they’re going to remember this,” Land said. “Some of them are going to look into this now, and I think that’s what she wants them to [do].”
And according to Doherty, raising awareness of seed saving could have some important implications.
“Here are a group of people that not only are they trying to save as much plant life as they can, and since humans are dependent on plant life, they’re basically trying to save the human race,” Doherty said.
