A Lake in A Desert exhibition and closing event are grounded in a shared objective: to foster collaborations between scientists, artists, and designers, that elevate research, reimagine community engagement, and expand the ways knowledge is synthesized and communicated. Because of this, the exhibition is focused on process. Rather than presenting finished products alone, it shows how maps are made, how paleo-reconstructions are built, and how scientific ideas are translated into compelling visual narratives such as children’s books. This emphasis on making and translation is key to demonstrating what becomes possible when creative and scientific disciplines work together.
The exhibition body of work spans all four floors of the Brown Center and brings together hand drawings by Kenyan high school students, decades of field maps by Robert Raynolds that illustrate the evolution of map making, paleo-reconstructions of extinct species by Spanish artist Mauricio Antón, children’s book illustrations by Dino Martins, analytical cartography of extractive mining by Cave Bureau (formerly on display at the British Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Biennale), research from an upcoming publication on the Arabian Peninsula by architecture and planning firm Civil Architecture, as well as films, sculpture, paintings, photographs, and collaborative works developed by MICA students, faculty, and researchers working in the Turkana Basin.
The closing event will begin with a private screening of NAWI: Dear Future Me, Kenya’s 2025 submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. The movie tells the true story of a 13-year-old girl from Turkana who is forced into child marriage and escapes to pursue her education in Nairobi. The film explores themes of tradition and resilience, courage and empowerment. We are especially excited to be able to share this film with you, as this screening offers an exclusive opportunity to see it ahead of its theatrical release! While the film is not the subject of the exhibition itself, it provides important cultural and environmental grounding for the audience ahead of the discussions to follow.
After the screening we will hear a short talk from the film’s director, Kevin Schmutzler, on the making of such a film, followed by a series of 10-minute talks from scientists and collaborators working in the Turkana Basin, including: Marine Frouin (Geochronologist at Stony Brook University & Turkana Basin Institute), Tara Smiley, (Evolutionary Ecologist at Stony Brook University & Turkana Basin Institute), Bob Raynolds (Cartographer at Denver Museum of Nature & Science), Weisen Shen (Geologist at Stony Brook University), and Desmond DeLanty (Design-builder and founder of EcoDepot). We will finish with a Panel Discussion that will include all the speakers as well as MICA faculty and students and explore opportunities of immediate and actionable collaboration. We are genuinely excited to bring this group together, in the context of the incredibly talented MICA community, and leave with and are very much looking forward to the conversations that will emerge - and to the synergistic energy that comes from scientists, artists, and designers sharing a room and a set of questions.
Before heading out into the Leidy Atrium to casually continue these discussions during a celebratory reception we will announce the winner of the $1,000 grant for exemplary work contributed to A Lake in A Desert.
If you are planning to attend the closing event, please register via the website so we can plan the reception accordingly.
Exhibition dates: Now through January 23, 2026
Closing event: January 22, 2026
Location: Brown Center, MICA, Baltimore