A Meeting of Artistic and Scientific Minds

He’s a poet who sketches and plays the tin whistle. She finds “magic in the process of dying and rotting materials transforming into the most beautiful soil.” He’s an ecosystem ecologist and professor of environmental science at DePaul University. She’s an artist with work in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others, and who created “Network,” the community art installation now on view at the Barrington Area Library – co-commissioned by the library and the Lake Barrington office of Bartlett Tree Experts.

They are Barbara Cooper and Liam Heneghan, and they’ll offer “Art Meets Science: A Conversation,” a free event at the library Thursday, May 10, at 7 pm. The two will discuss Network through their respective lenses, and explore related work of their own and that of other artists and scientists.

The program is part of the library’s "Network" series, a variety of events related to the artwork. The piece is inspired by the connectivity of tree roots and the connective role of libraries in communities. More than 100 area residents and businesses helped create “Network,” which consists of more than 900 feet of handmade ropes suspended overhead in a colorful web in the library’s soaring atrium. The piece is scheduled to be on view through September.

The Barrington Area Library is located at 505 N. Northwest Highway, Barrington.