EDITORS: Pictures available on request.

ANN ARBOR—Look high, look low, and look closely in between to find what lives, and grows where. And then look again, to find what you missed the first time.

Joe Trumpey, assistant professor of art in science illustration at the University of Michigan’s School of Art and Design, has designed and painted murals that document several of the ecosystems of North America, including a Caribbean coral reef. These murals will find a permanent home at the Detroit Science Center.

The murals, occupying a classroom in the Ford Learning Resource Center (FLRC), will cover the walls of the area to be used for specific life science lessons for students in pre-kindergarten through college. Created in space donated by U-M’s Art and Architecture Building, the 12′-by-120′ mural (cut into sections) depicts six North American biomes ranging from a temperate deciduous forest to life beneath the waters in the Caribbean.

From birds to mammals and fish to reptiles, plants and invertebrates, nearly 400 species are specifically identified.

Involving students from his U-M classes and the University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), Trumpey and his team researched the food webs and life cycles of both plants and animals indigenous to North America’s mountains, wetlands, deserts, grasslands and Great Lakes before applying latex wall paint and acrylics to the panels. The team also worked with the architects designing this renovation at the FLRC, lighting specialists, and a sculptor in Columbus, Ohio.

The entire project becomes interactive with doors incorporated into the panels that open to reveal a different scene including nocturnal animals, a skunk family, or the human effects on the biome. The mural will also incorporate a rock and mineral collection and have two living aquaria.

“This has been a terrific project which has the potential to affect countless visitors to the Detroit Science Center,” Trumpey says. “Hopefully, viewers will leave this classroom with a greater curiosity and respect for our natural world. It has also provided an excellent opportunity for our University students to get involved with a very large real-world project.”

Trumpey’s team spent last semester planning and has been painting since early January to have the mural ready for installation in June.

Joe TrumpeyUndergraduate Research Opportunity Program