Andrea Polli

Photo: Professor of Art Studio | Mesa Del Sol Endowed Chair of Digital Media | Director, STEAM NM

Andrea Polli
Professor of Art Studio | Mesa Del Sol Endowed Chair of Digital Media | Director, STEAM NM

Andrea Polli is an artist and scholar working at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Her work explores how creative practice can respond to some of the most pressing issues of our time, including climate change, environmental data, and the role of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence in society.

At the University of New Mexico, Polli leads interdisciplinary projects that bring together scientists, artists, engineers, and community members to translate complex scientific information into experiences that engage the public. Her collaborations include work with atmospheric scientists to create immersive visualizations of climate data, as well as community-centered initiatives that connect environmental research with cultural resilience.

Polli is the Director of STEAM NM, an initiative that promotes the integration of science, technology, engineering, art, and math through education, public programming, and creative practice. She is also the Mesa Del Sol Endowed Chair of Digital Media in the College of Fine Arts, where she teaches courses on digital media, environmental art, and community engagement.

Her work has been recognized with numerous awards and fellowships, including support from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Fulbright. She has exhibited and presented her projects internationally, from climate-focused installations in museums to collaborative workshops in communities most impacted by environmental change.

Polli’s approach reflects a commitment to interdisciplinary practice, mentorship, and public scholarship. By combining art and science, she aims to foster deeper understanding of environmental challenges and inspire innovative solutions rooted in both data and human experience.

 

“Community Trust Creates Possibility:” Dr. Andrea Polli On Community-Engaged Scholarship

At UNM, the Office of Community Engagement works to create new resources, and recontextualize connections, for faculty, staff, and students to learn the ins-and-outs - the lessons, and the paths - from UNM’s existing wealth of faculty and community who have already been at this work for a long time.

Dr. Andrea Polli is a professor in the College of Fine Arts, a recipient of the Community Engaged Research Award from the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), and an interdisciplinary artist whose work melds art, data, and science into installations and integrating community knowledge into new forms. Polli has been at the helm of wide-ranging community-engaged research projects and art installations - while running STEAM New Mexico, a lab she founded with seed funding from AmeriCorps/VISTA.

glow event

The “GLOW” (Growing Life on Other Worlds) pod project, a climate futures project designed at UNM’s Center for Advanced Research Computing with Polli’s Social Media Workgroup, with over 250 New Mexico plants from Taos Pueblo’s Red Willow Farms, debuted at Paseo Project in Taos and moved to Explora! Museum in Albuquerque.

Polli explained, “Historically, community-engaged research has not fit in with the tenure clock at UNM. What I would emphasize is that in community-engaged work, it really takes time to develop relationships with the community. That’s the source of the work.”

Relationships with the community - and the students themselves. In community-engaged work, Polli emphasized that students get a chance to be respected for their ideas, more so than in specific industries or set research models where there is no room for experimenting. Beyond that, students can bring important knowledge about the communities they are from into practice, too.

Polli received the Community Engaged Research Award in 2019-20, which commends and recognizes faculty who have created inroads for community-engaged research and scholarship at UNM.

Said Polli, “I felt humbled by this award because there is so much community engaged work at UNM that’s not being recognized. This award represents that beginning of change, to me.”

andrea polli sitting on a sculpture

Polli sits with a sculpture she and a team of students designed and installed at Dine College.

When Polli first began a partnership with the AmeriCorps/Vista program, her student researchers worked with and supported the CNM Fuse Makerspace project and the STEM Arts Lab in Taos. From an initial collaboration with Taos’ Paseo Project, and between existing partners, students, elders, and attention to the environment, the partnership had sustained support.

“Developing a trust and understanding between partners - that community trust - creates possibility,” Polli explained. “It takes time to understand how community partners function and their requirements and restrictions, and that’s where we can really build partnerships from.”