Science meets art at NYC exhibit on water's vital role amid growing climate concerns

New York has some of the best drinking water in the country, and it shouldn't be taken for granted.

As climate change and public policy make the necessary substance scarce in some parts of the country and the world, local scientists and artists have partnered up for the "Water Stories" exhibit at the Brooklyn Army Terminal to bring awareness to the vital work being done around New York City to keep our water accessible to all.

Located underneath a lab where the Interstate Environmental Commission (IEC) monitors the quality of local waterfronts, the free and interactive installation at BioBAT Art Space features artworks aimed at communicating the research being done at the city-owned building through the universal language of art.

"This is our way of sharing the important work they're doing to the public," said co-founder and curator Elena Soterakis as she took NBC New York on a tour of the space. "It's really just a bunch of artists responding to the waterfront in my different way to super scientific to more spiritual to more poetic."

The exhibit is free to the public but it only opens Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. But as part of Open House New York, it will be open Oct. 19-20 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The exhibition features a variety of artworks that in some way involve the water from our area in the creation process. One installation by artist-in-residence Yoko Shimizu was inspired by the samples obtained during a water collection trip with IEC scientists.

The circular images that show the sites where the samples were collected act as records, and the inside circles -- which represent the data collected from those sites on Petri dishes -- are sonified on a small music box.

Another installation that leaned into the more spiritual aspect of water is “Water the Sounds” by Ranjit Bhatnagar and Anne Hollænder. The piece lets spectators pour seawater into a bowl, which activates analog instruments as well as haunting audio of Hollænder's singing to the crowd during the exhibit's opening.

Soterakis best described the installation as "having a soul of its own."

One artist took a scientific and poetic approach to her work by using real algae collected on her trips with the scientists from the IEC. Founded in 1936, predating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the tri-state agency has been at the forefront of protecting and advocating for the health of the states' shared waterways through collaborative water quality monitoring projects.

Yan Shao told NBC New York that she was inspired by the organisms' diversity, which ranges from single-celled forms at the bottom of the food chain to large kelps that serve as habitats for other lifeforms, and their ancient role in our ecological system. Algae also provide oxygen for other aquatic life and produce 70% of the Earth's oxygen.

Shao's piece, "Algae Chorus," gave voice to the tiny beings in clear water containers one would find in a household --- leaving the audience to reflect on their carbon-producing existence and our dependency on their photosynthesizing process.

Without water, there can be no life. That message is clear through the IEC's collaboration with the BioBAT Art Space.

"Water Stories" runs through May 3, 2025.

Linda Gaudino contributed to this report.