The virtues of art for science

Intellectual virtues are important for knowledge and understanding during scientific research, including studies of ‘wicked problems’, such as environmental change. Art helps develop science virtues; through education and training, by scientists creating art or while working with artists. The potential is illustrated by creation of moss sculptures in Southeast Alaska when the region was unusually warm and dry. Through collaboration on these sculptures, the artist understood the role of environmental factors in temperate rainforests while the scientist observed how art could convey the consequences of environmental change, and how the education and training of scientists and non-scientists could be broadened.