The University of New Mexico Art Museum Distinguished Lecture Series features James Elkins, who is delivering, "Art-Science Interactions," on Tuesday, March 24 at 5:30 p.m. in the museum, located in the Center for the Arts on the UNM main campus.

"Art-Science Interactions" is a survey of the principal ways that the interaction between artists and scientists, or art and science have been theorized. 

Elkins grew up in Ithaca, NY, separated from Cornell University by a quarter-mile of woods once owned by naturalist Laurence Palmer. He stayed in Ithaca long enough to earn a bachelor's degree in English and art history, with summer hitchhiking trips to Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, the Caribbean and Colombia. For the last 25 years he has lived in Chicago, where he earned several degrees from the University of Chicago: a graduate degree in painting, graduate degree in art history and then a Ph.D. in art history, which he completed in 1989. Since then he has been teaching in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ellis' interests include microscopy - with a Zeiss Nomarski differential interference microscope and Anoptral phase contrast; stereo photography - with a Realist camera; playing contemporary classical music on the piano and winter ocean diving. 

His writing focuses on the history and theory of images in art, science and nature. Some of his books are exclusively on fine art, others include scientific and non-art images, writing systems and archaeology. Some are about natural history. His most recent books are "What Photography Is," and "Art Critiques: A Guide."

Funding for this lecture series in provided in part by the Department of Art and Art History and the Allene H. and Walter P. Kleweno Lecture Series Fund.