What, you might ask, do the Intro to Computer Science and Drawing 1 classes have in common? 

“I like showing students that computer programming can be used to support lots of fields,” said Kate Seyboth, who teaches computer science and is the director of digital and computation learning. 

Kate worked with visual arts teacher Melanie Carr on a spring project that combined the two classes. 

“It was awesome,” Melanie said. “I was so excited that Kate reached out and initiated the idea. Any time we work at the intersection of two or more disciplines, there is a lot of richness.” 

Together, Kate and Melanie did a unit on conceptual art. The classes studied the art of Sol LeWitt, who was born in Hartford, Conn., and was a leader in the conceptual art movement. He believed an idea itself could be art, and he turned over the instructions for the production of a piece to others. The artist was known in part for large wall pieces, one of which was created by Loomis Chaffee students in the Sue & Eugene Mercy Gallery on campus in 2001.  

For the collaboration this year, the students in Kate’s and Melanie’s classes produced pieces on a smaller scale. Part of the process was visiting MassMoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) in North Adams, Mass., to see multiple wall drawings by LeWitt.  

Instructions were created for the artwork. A student from the Computer Science class made a program to create the art digitally, and a drawing student created the same piece by hand. 

The artwork, alongside the instructions that generated each piece, hangs in the Pearse Hub for Innovation, which is where the intersection of many disciplines produces a unique experience for students.  

Said one of the students in the Computer Science class: “I loved that we could work with an art class because it unleashed our most creative selves.”