About the Exhibition 

Creative Encounters is an exhibition in two parts:

• Creative Conversations 
• Art Inspired by Science

The exhibition is on display at Ushaw College throughout June, July and August  2025. It is located in the Ambulacrum, an informal exhibition space next to the gallery. 

Find out more about Ushaw College and how to get there. 

Exhibition dates: June - August 2025 

Creative Conversations 

Since 2022 the BSI has brough together creatives and scientists to explore scientific ideas. By supporting these creative conversations we have helped our scientists and collaborating artists to find surprising connections and new perspectives to their research. These conversations have also helped find new ways to communicate our research and engage with new audiences. 

This section of the exhibition features the work of three artists who have formed collaborative links with our scientists. In the section below there is an introduction to the artists and the scientist partners and the topics explored.

Mark Burden and Andrew Krause 

The artist Mark Burden and Durham Mathematical Sciences Department's Dr Andrew Krause collaborated to explore Turing's ideas about biological morphogenesis - a way of describing how the spatial structure of biological organisms are formed during growth.

Their collaboration utilised the free website VisualPDE.com developed by Dr Andrew Krause alongside Benjamin Walker (University College London), Adam Townsend (Durham University). The free VisualPDE website gives users interactive simulations of mathematical equations including Turing simulations on images of Turing. 

Alison Lane, Lady Michaelle St Vincent and Amanda Ellison

Alison Lane (Durham University, Psychology), Lady Michaelle St Vincent and Amanda Ellison (Durham University, Psychology) met through our first ever round table event in early 2023. Their collaboration explores the connection between the perception of colour and smell using scratch and sniff questionnaire cards.

Laura Benetton and Steven Cobb 

The collaboration between artist Laura Benetton and Prof. Steven Cobb (Durham University, Chemistry) is focussed on creating an art trail to explore and communicate scientific ideas about colour in nature, through a series of installations with interactive and informative guides. The art trail planned for summer 2026 will be aimed at families and there be events for children running alongside which explore the themes of the exhibition. 

Art Inspired by Science

Through 2024-2025 creative responses were invited in response to a series of scientific images collected by Dr Robert Banks during his long career teaching and researching in Durham.

The creative responses were curated to form an exhibition at the Durham University Botanic Garden and as an online exhibition. Selected pieces from the exhibition form the second part of this exhibition. Further information about the scientific images, the exhibits and the creatives who have taken part can be found on the exhibition webpages.

Find out more here. 

About the Biophysical Sciences Institute

This exhibition has been brought together by Durham University’s Biophysical Sciences Institute. We are a Durham University Research Institute whose community includes over 150 academics and researchers from across 7 departments. Our members are united by an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to the research of fundamental biological processes which drives new discoveries and technologies. 

Find out more: About Us