STEMarts Lab: Communicating Wonder and Awe

"You always look at where you are right now, and then you design for that moment," explains STEMarts Lab Founder/Director Agnes Chavez."I don't do 'cooky cutter'. Every iteration...is adapting and responding to a real need."That's exactly what her pioneering SciArt production studio and STEAM youth leadership program is doing.Agnes, who is an interdisciplinary new media artist and educator, founded STEMarts Lab in 2009.Wonder, awe and STEAMBased in El Prado, New Mexico, STEMarts Lab empowers local youth to create a better future.Combining art, science and technology, students collaborate on solving real-world challenges and illustrating science in engaging and immersive ways.Each project starts with the concepts of wonder and awe in our universe--and the ways we, as human beings, have a role in it, as planetary citizens."What is our place in the universe?" Agnes asks. "What is our connection to space?"Participants, ages 14 to 25, get to answer those questions by integrating art, science and technology with their own creativity. As they work on cutting-edge projects, the lines blur between STEM, arts and humanities."STEMarts is all about breaking down those boundaries, and playing," Agnes says.Collaborating with experts in areas including astrophysics, coding and space science, students use media including augmented reality and artificial intelligence to create something exciting. The result: immersive, experiential "SciArt" productions, which travel all over the world.Engaging the general publicThese creations include the Space Messengers A.I. installation, which incorporates messages from youth and communities around the world.Meanwhile, there's also Astrotours, which uses augmented reality to explore the night skies from a new perspective.And currently, STEMarts Ambassadors are preparing for their upcoming live-coding performances at the inaugural Taos Film Festival!Expanding innovationAs STEMarts continues to grow, their reach and impact includes some exciting milestones for New Mexico youth.Between 2012 and 2025, more than 2,200 students participated in STEMarts' Classroom Design Challenge. STEMarts hosted three to seven student-led community events annually between 2012 and 2024, and student benefits included apprenticeships and paid youth internships, as well as International Travel Awards to five different countries between 2022 and 2025.Agnes shared the story of creating STEMarts Lab, offered a closer look at the Space Messengers AI and Astrotours projects and discussed her vision for the future.