San Miguel Academy students recently visited Storm King Art Center in nearby New Windsor, NY, where they explored several works of art with guidance from the Center’s education staff. Among the works they studied were Mark di Suvero’s E-MC2 and Pyramidian, which offered opportunities to explore scale, form, and perspective, as well as Anicka Yi’s Message from the Mud.
Yi’s Message from the Mud is a particularly fascinating work. Its tall, transparent structures are more than sculptures; they are living scientific experiments! The installation consists of 20 acrylic columns filled with soil, water, and organic materials collected from Storm King’s landscape. Each column contains living microorganisms, including algae, cyanobacteria, and bacteria. Over time, sunlight and the surrounding environment influence their growth, creating changing layers of green, amber, and brown.
The columns are based on a 19th-century scientific technique known as Winogradsky columns, which allows scientists to observe microbial life. Rising from a shallow pool, the structures resemble an archaeological excavation, inviting viewers to consider the unseen forms of life all around us. The installation was on view through November 9, 2026, giving our students the opportunity to experience it during the final days of the exhibition.
Storm King Art Center is an open-air museum with one of the country’s largest collections of contemporary outdoor sculpture. Set in a spectacularly beautiful landscape, it is a wonderful place to explore, discover, and learn.
Storm King is one of San Miguel’s longtime education partners, providing experiences and programming that spark curiosity and inspire a love of learning. We are grateful to our education partners for helping us extend learning beyond the traditional classroom through our Project and Place-Based Learning curriculum.
