UW-Madison: National Roster of Science Illustrators to Meet in Madison

MADISON – They’ll be coming to Madison in a force expected in excess of 120
professionals. The draw? The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Conference,
hosted in 2006 by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sunday, July 30-Saturday, Aug.
5.

On-site conference coordinator Micaela Sullivan-Fowler, curator of rare books and
special collections at Ebling Health Sciences Library, says that topics will range
from drawing Wisconsin’s native rattlesnakes to creating three-dimensional art, and
from insect illustration to landscape reconstruction to chocolate in art and more.

Richard Slaughter, director of UW-Madison’s Geology Museum for the last five years,
will deliver the conference’s keynote address on Monday, July 31. Slaughter
specializes in prehistoric caves of the Midwest and the bones often found therein.
Using fossil deposits in caves, he is reconstructing how the region has changed in
the last 25,000 years. He also tracks how endangered animals have reacted to climate
change following the retreat of glaciers from the area.   

In addition, a gallery exhibition at UW-Madison’s Health Sciences Learning Center
(HSLC) will showcase more than 60 traditional and digital examples of natural
science illustration, embracing the fields of biology, botany, paleontology, earth
science, zoology and others. Most of the art is on the third floor of the Ebling
Library.

Sullivan-Fowler says that the presence of the art has transformed HSLC. “The
paintings are both stunning and informative, lending absolutely fabulous color and
elegance to the previously plain walls. People just love it,” she says.

In addition, “Science Made Clear: The Art of Illustration,” a collection of rare
books highlighting the illustrator’s art from 1600-1930, will be on view until
Friday, Sept. 29.

On Library Mall, “Secrets Reveal’d: Pseudo Science, the Occult and the Paranormal
From Holdings of the Special Collections” will be up until Friday, Oct. 13, in
Memorial Library’s Special Collections room on the ninth floor.

Both exhibitions are free and open to the public. However, conference attendance is
limited to registered participants. For more information, visit
http://www.gnsi.org
or contact Sullivan-Fowler at (608) 262-2402 or msullivan@library.wisc.edu.