Visitors enter an immersive, interactive experience where art, science and the humanities intersect through two interdisciplinary exhibits at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design. These exhibits demonstrate how College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) faculty extend their scholarship beyond the classroom and into the community.

Among the faculty is Marsha Gordon, professor and director of the Film Studies Program and an English Department faculty member.  She collaborated with specialists from various fields and institutions to develop the centerpiece exhibit, In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers, which was first presented at the Harvard Museum of Natural History and is now at NC State.

Gordon describes the exhibit as a contemporary artistic interpretation of Henry David Thoreau’s preserved plants, highlighting the impacts of climate change and habitat destruction on flora around Walden Pond. It runs through January 2026.

At the Gregg Museum, the exhibit showcases new artworks depicting human impacts on North Carolina’s biodiversity, including a collaborative piece by Gordon. A second work by Gordon and her collaborator, artist Robin Vuchnich, MGD ’14, adjunct lecturer at the NC State College of Design, is part of the related exhibit, The House of Ideas: Plants in Art, which highlights the vital role of plants in our lives. 

CHASS faculty Christopher Galik, a professor of environmental policy at the School of Public and International Affairs, and Alexis Clark, an assistant professor of art studies and history, helped bring The House of Ideas: Plants in Art exhibit to fruition. It runs through August 2026.

Gordon said the version of In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers at the Gregg Museum enhances and expands on the original exhibit, features newly created artworks, is interdisciplinary in nature, and includes immersive and interactive digital components. Among them is an interactive wall of Thoreau’s flowers that float and respond to human presence and movement in the gallery.

“Take a 19th-century naturalist and author, add contemporary scientists, throw in a photographer who works largely in antique techniques, a humanities professor, and a new media artist, and you get this mix of new and old, scientific, literary, and artistic,” Gordon said. “This project would never have happened had the four of us not brought our different lenses to bear on the idea of paying attention to the insects and flowers that make our world possible.”

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers, Gordon added, highlights the power of collaboration across diverse disciplines, showcasing how individuals can achieve more together than alone. 

Among the exhibit’s new artworks is Herbaria North Caroliniana, a five-panel digital mosaic that Gordon created with Vuchnich. It adorns the large windows at the museum’s entrance and acts as a guidepost to the In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers exhibit.

Herbaria North Caroliniana displays images of plant specimens from NC State’s vascular plant herbarium, collected throughout North Carolina from the late 1800s to early 2010s. It also features photographs that Gordon took of pollinating insects from NC State’s extensive research collections, shown alongside the plants they pollinate, emphasizing their importance in the plants’ survival and reproductive processes.

The collaborators also created Preserve // Persevere for The House of Ideas: Plants in Art exhibit, which Gordon said is a whimsical botanical portrait of the museum’s pollinator garden.  Vuchnich and Gordon used pressed plants they collected from the museum’s garden to make the piece. 

“A key aim of the two exhibits is to invite people into the museum to experience beauty and wonder while reflecting on our individual and collective responsibility to the natural world.”

Gordon added that a key aim of the two exhibits is to invite people into the museum to experience beauty and wonder while reflecting on our individual and collective responsibility to the natural world. The House of Ideas: Plants in Art show, she said, even has a botanical sketching room, where anyone can create their own art.

So how has Gordon’s involvement in the exhibits extended her role beyond the classroom?

Gordon, a self-described believer in NC State’s Think and Do culture and interdisciplinary collaboration, said: “We all have the potential to channel our collective knowledge and creativity to make thoughtful and beautiful things that engage people, both on campus and off. I hope students will see themselves in this exhibition and be inspired to pursue ideas they are passionate about, to take an idea they have for doing something creative and try to make it happen.”