Artist Jill Krutick & author Michele Navakas come together to discuss their works during Miami University’s focus on Environmental Justice. Steven M. Sullivan, Director of the Hefner Museum of Natural History, will be the leading the discussion. Navakas, author of Coral Lives: Literature, Labor, and the Making of America, dives into the cultural history of coral as an essential element of the marine ecosystem, a personal ornament, a global commodity, and a powerful political metaphor. Krutick, an abstract expressionist painter captivated by sublime beauty of nature, will discuss her art practice and how it has evolved over the years. She will reflect on her recent museum exhibition at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum and her Coral Beliefs exhibition and the three works she recently gifted to the University.

This exhibition brings together art, literature, and science to explain what coral is and showcase its importance to humanity—not only biologically, but also culturally and spiritually. The exhibition is a collaboration among three people: Steven M. Sullivan, Director of the Hefner Museum of Natural History; Michele Navakas, Professor of English and author of Coral Lives: Literature, Labor, and The Making of America (Princeton University Press, 2023); and Jill Krutick, a New York-based abstract expressionist painter whose practice explores the impact of climate change on our Earth and sea.