The SMS Mosaic Project is a community art initiative organized by the School of Molecular Sciences (SMS) MOSAIC Committee (Mentoring, Opportunities, Support, and Inclusiveness in Chemistry) and funded by a seed grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The project's driving premise: the strength of a scientific community lies in the diversity of the people who comprise it—their identities, backgrounds, and perspectives. The mosaics you see around you are a permanent, physical expression of that idea.
The Tiles
Five hundred four-inch hexagonal tiles—hexagons chosen to evoke the benzene ring, a fundamental building block in organic chemistry—were distributed to members of the SMS community and beyond. Participants decorated their tiles with Sharpie markers in any way they chose: to represent their identity, their relationship with science, or simply their place in this community. There were no rules and no artistic prerequisites. Two hundred tiles were mailed to online and remote students around the world; the rest were decorated at local and campus events. Contributors included SMS students, faculty, and staff; local middle and high school students; and adults from the wider community, including members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI).
The Mosaics
The ~500 completed tiles were assembled by a local artist into five mixed-media wall hangings with frames of wood, metal, and 3D-printed elements in ASU maroon and gold. Embedded within each mosaic, together with the community-decorated tiles, are 3D nucleic acids (because "chemistry is in our DNA”), decorative periodic table elements, and 3D-printed tiles reading "You Belong Here" and "The Mosaic Project."
Find All Five!
The five mosaics are permanently installed in SMS facilities across the Bateman Physical Sciences Center (PSC):
- SMS Main Office (inside)
- SMS Main Office Hallway (outside the main office)
- PSC D-Wing, Floor 1 – yellow wall in the student study area
- PSC D-Wing, Floor 2 – yellow wall in the student study area
- PSC D-Wing, Floor 3 – yellow wall in the student study area
Each mosaic contains a QR code tile that links back to this page.
Why It Matters
Science does not happen in isolation. It depends on a community—on the people who do the work, on the people who support that work, and on a broader, science-curious public that cares about the who and the what and the how of science. Every tile in these mosaics represents one of those people; every tile is different..and that’s the point.
Read more about the Mosaic Project in [link forthcoming]