An art gallery launched in February titled “The Mycological Menagerie,” showcasing the beauty and diversity of fungi, is on display in the University of Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.
The gallery’s focus is to communicate the importance and beauty of fungi to a wider audience, bridging the gap between science and art, Ph.D. student Savannah Gentry said.
Local, national and international artists donated art for the gallery. The collection consists of a variety of art mediums including drawings, paintings and fiber arts. For many of the artists, it is the first time they have had artwork displayed in a public gallery.
The curators behind the installation are three students from the Pringle Laboratory in the Department of Botany — Ph.D. students Gentry and Nora Dunkirk and microbiology undergraduate Naamon Peyton. They submitted The Mycological Menagerie to the UW Arts Business Competition and received second place in 2022.
The motivation behind the project is the desire to connect to the mycology community and demonstrate why fungi matter. Fungi are often put in a negative light, Gentry said, so the gallery is meant to share in the joy around fungal education and fight misconceptions.
“All these different types of people, who do different things across the world, also have knowledge and can share really wonderful aspects of fungi that other people just may not have been exposed to yet,” Gentry said.
The curators strive to achieve this goal by focusing on fungi from an artistic perspective and accepting art submissions from professionals, students and the public.
To continue connecting general audiences with the mycology community, curators chose to place the gallery in the WID where it is free and open to the public.
“We didn’t want this just to be a university-accessible gallery,” Dunkirk said. “We wanted it to be free for anyone who’s got any interest in fungi to come and visit.”
They also plan to make this a traveling exhibition and are working toward finding the next location, Gentry said. With each new iteration of the gallery, they plan to accept more artist submissions.
The curators also plan to make the exhibit a digital art gallery on The Mycological Menagerie website in the future, Dunkirk said, making it accessible to anyone anywhere in the world.
The gallery will remain open to the public in the WID Monday through Saturday until mid-May.
