School of Medicine

New Art Exhibit Celebrates the Periodic Table

Dan Jay experiments with chemical elements in his latest show at Tisch Library
Artist-scientist Dan Jay
“For me, the greatest satisfaction comes when there is a small child whose eyes are glued to this . . . and you never know where that will lead,” Dan Jay said. “Maybe it leads to the next great scientist or the next great artist.” Photo: Glenn Kulbako

The periodic table is a tidy chart of chemical elements. A new exhibit at Tisch Library whips those elements into artistic chaos.

Artist-scientist Dan Jay, dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University School of Medicine and adjunct professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, has been a fan of the tabular display since he was a little boy.

“The periodic table was a statement that we could understand nature for the first time. That was a very critical thing in my mind,” Jay said. “This is not a casual interaction; this is a deep passion for the periodic table, chemistry in general, and the ability to understand knowledge and organize.”

This passion comes through in his latest exhibit, Archemy: The Periodic Table at 150, which explores the intersection of science and art. It is on display at Tisch Library until December 31.

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