Case Study

National Science Foundation

The Grove designed a Storymap representing a collaborative effort between the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. An international group of stakeholders—artists, engineers, computer scientists and institution leaders—gathered to discuss the current and desired future states of combining art, science and technology into new forms of cultural expression and scientific discovery. The purpose of the project was to develop and illustrate strategies to maintain U.S. innovation at the global level.

The Storymap depicts the current worlds of arts and sciences as two isolated environments with a few artists and scientists moving into the middle ground of interdisciplinary research. As these researchers move forward, they must put in place structures, illustrated as the building of a ramp, to get them to a higher plane of transformative breakthroughs. In this future land, artists, scientists, and individuals involved in multiple disciplines are innovating together, strengthening both national and international communities.

This map is currently being used by members of the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and several institution leaders to communicate the current situation and measures needed to create a collaborative environment for art, science and technology.