Facilitating scientific engagement through a science-art festival

ABSTRACT

The recent discovery and ongoing detection of Einstein's predicted gravitational waves offers an exciting opportunity for engaging the general public in science. In order to reach a wide range of people with different science-art identities, levels of physics expertise, age, and gender, the Celebrating Einstein festival merges science, dance, and music. Festival components include: (1) a danced lecture with choreography inspired by representations of black holes and gravitational waves, and (2) live interviews with physicists that address issues of science, philosophy, religion, art, and education. We assessed the impact of this festival by deploying a pre- and post-event survey at three Celebrating Einstein festivals hosted in different sites in the United States (Northern, Southern, and Central), and by interviewing a subset of attendees at one location. This study focuses on participants’ knowledge gain, interest in science, and emotional reactions towards this science-art event. We explored how knowledge gain varies by participant demographics, how it correlates with an increased interest in science and intention to attend future science-art events, and how participants engaged emotionally. Results indicate that the science-art format effectively reached a wide range of demographic groups, significantly increased participants’ knowledge, interest in science and science-art events, and broadened their perception of scientists.

KEYWORDS:

• Science communication
• general relativity
• STEAM

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kathryn Williamson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0606-098X

Joey Shapiro Key http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0123-7600