To Make A Prairie: Pollination and Human Understanding
The WRCT Forbes Avenue team recently visited the main gallery of the Hunt Institute For Botanical Documentation on the CMU campus to preview the current exhibition, To Make A Prairie: Pollination and Human Understanding. Senior Curator of Art Carrie Roy and Curator of Art Lydia Rosenberg explained that the artworks and specimens in the exhibition demonstrate an unusual intersection of science and art.
The exhibition includes artworks and specimens from the 18th to the 21st century, allowing a viewer to see how people’s understanding of pollination — of both plants and pollinators — has increased over time. Unusual flora and fauna are represented: the exhibition includes a specimen of a bat that pollinates cacti, a pressed plant from 1829, a Darwin Orchid preserved in alcohol, and over 40 artworks that demonstrate how early observation of the relationship between plants, pollen, and the world has transformed into scientific understanding.
Besides, many of the artworks are gorgeous or intriguing!
The Hunt Institute For Botanical Documentation is located on the fifth floor of the Hunt Library on the CMU campus. The exhibition is free and open to the public Tuesdays – Fridays 9:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. through June 30.
Listen to this episode: Carrie Roy & Lydia Rosenberg
Kate Smigie, interviewer, researcher
Richard Gordon, interviewer, recording engineer, audio editor
Recorded: March 11, 2026
WRCT debut: March 17, 2026