KU News Release

KU design students chosen to have artwork displayed at Smithsonian

LAWRENCE — Two University of Kansas students will have their artwork displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., after winning a poster contest.

Ivan Aguirre and Carolina Medeiros, both students in KU’s School of Fine Arts, created the posters for KU’s Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets to communicate information about the center’s participation in the International Polar Year.

The International Polar Year is a global research effort to better understand the polar regions and their climatic effects on the Earth. The “year” runs from March 1, 2007, to March 1, 2009, which gives researchers two summer cycles to conduct research in both polar regions, where winters, which last for six months, are shrouded in darkness and inhospitable cold. More than 60 countries will participate in the research.

Students in Graphic Design I, taught by Jeremy Shellhorn, assistant professor of design, worked with Steve Ingalls, associate director of administration for the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, to create the posters.

Faculty, students and staff members at the center voted online to narrow the field from 43 entries to the top three. Two other posters were recognized for their potential for educational outreach at elementary, middle and high schools. Aguirre won for best overall poster. Medeiros received honors for top educational poster. Works created by students Lesley Hunt, Anh-Linh Trinh and Mary King also were among the top vote-getters.

Aguirre, a native of Bogota, Colombia, is a senior in visual communications-graphics. Medeiros is a senior in visual communications-graphics and in journalism (strategic communications emphasis). She is the daughter of Carlos Alberto Galindo de Medeiros of Recife, Brazil.

The students will travel to Washington, D.C., for the Making Science Global climate change conference Oct. 31. Their art will be displayed in the Smithsonian Institution’s headquarters, known as the Castle, during the two-day event.

The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, headquartered at KU, was established by the National Science Foundation in 2005. Its mission is to engineer new tools and models to better understand and predict the role of polar ice sheets in sea-level change. The center has partner institutions around the world.

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