About.Renaissance Box is a city-wide interdisciplinary residency program that brings professionals in the arts and sciences together with high school students for an immersive STEAM experience.
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Established in 2024What if Cleveland's artistic spirit and scientific prowess weren't just coexisting, but collaborating? The Renaissance Box program was our answer – a space where bold ideas find their form, and disciplines collide to fuel discovery.
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Our GoalWe're not just about projects, we're about people. Our goal is to ignite the power of STEAM collaborations - artists, STEM professionals, and the next generation of innovators all learning, creating, and pushing boundaries together. And where better to do that than Cleveland, a city with the perfect blend of imagination and ingenuity?
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CURRENT PARTICIPANTS
WINTER 2025
The Artist
JONAH JACOBS, a Cleveland-based artist originally from Denmark, is a graduate of Antioch College and a U.S. Army veteran who served in South Korea and the 82nd Airborne Division. His work explores the complexity of natural structures by recreating their forms through sculpture rather than traditional representation. Using unconventional materials like oatmeal, cardboard, and textiles, Jonah layers and dyes his pieces to mimic organic growth, often incorporating fire to create spontaneous, dynamic shapes. His art examines the interplay of beauty, function, and sustainability, highlighting how intricate forms arise from the repetition of simple patterns. https://www.jonahjacobs.com/ |
The STEM Professional
DR. CONNIE PIEPER, a Cleveland-based neurologist turned artist, is pursuing a BFA at the Cleveland Institute of Art with a concentration in Metals. After earning her BS and MD and practicing medicine, Connie shifted her focus to art, exploring themes of identity, transformation, and empowerment through her work. Drawing on her experiences as a Chinese American growing up in suburban Maryland and her career as a physician, her art examines the intersection of disparate worlds and the challenges of personal growth. https://www.conniepieperart.com/ |
THE PROJECT PROPOSAL
The United States generates over 12% of the world’s trash despite accounting for only 4% of the global population, a striking imbalance that highlights the severity of its waste crisis. The statistics are sobering:
Artist Jonah Jacobs has spent nearly two decades addressing this crisis through his art, transforming waste into intricate, organic sculptures crafted from discarded materials. While his work may not significantly alter overall waste generation, it inspires others to see the creative potential in up-cycling. For Jacobs, turning trash into art is not only an environmental act but also a celebration of the beauty that can emerge from the discarded.
Collaborating with STEM partner Dr. Connie Pieper, Jacobs combines his artistic vision with scientific insights to explore the intersection of art and environmental advocacy. Their current project focuses on utilizing up-cycled cardboard to craft sculptures inspired by organic forms in nature, such as tree roots, bark, coral, geological formations, and seed pods. These pieces integrate additional waste materials—including plastic, Styrofoam, metal shavings, crushed glass, and sawdust—woven into the works to challenge conventional perceptions of waste.
A subset of their sculptures highlights the issue of microplastics in waterways, incorporating fluids infused with plastic particles. These works merge art and science, raising awareness of environmental crises while conveying a sense of hope. Through this collaboration, Jacobs and Pieper strive to bridge the realms of art, science, and environmentalism, envisioning a future where creativity and sustainability intersect.
- In 2018, the U.S. produced 292 million tons of municipal solid waste.
- On average, nearly five pounds of trash are generated per person daily—approximately 1,800 pounds annually—with 62% of this waste sent to landfills or incinerators. Over 90% of plastic waste meets the same end.
- Packaging alone constitutes 28% of U.S. waste, equating to 82 million tons, much of it single-use.
- Other significant contributors include clothing and newspapers (17%), yard trimmings (12%), food waste (21%), and durable goods such as appliances and furniture (19%).
Artist Jonah Jacobs has spent nearly two decades addressing this crisis through his art, transforming waste into intricate, organic sculptures crafted from discarded materials. While his work may not significantly alter overall waste generation, it inspires others to see the creative potential in up-cycling. For Jacobs, turning trash into art is not only an environmental act but also a celebration of the beauty that can emerge from the discarded.
Collaborating with STEM partner Dr. Connie Pieper, Jacobs combines his artistic vision with scientific insights to explore the intersection of art and environmental advocacy. Their current project focuses on utilizing up-cycled cardboard to craft sculptures inspired by organic forms in nature, such as tree roots, bark, coral, geological formations, and seed pods. These pieces integrate additional waste materials—including plastic, Styrofoam, metal shavings, crushed glass, and sawdust—woven into the works to challenge conventional perceptions of waste.
A subset of their sculptures highlights the issue of microplastics in waterways, incorporating fluids infused with plastic particles. These works merge art and science, raising awareness of environmental crises while conveying a sense of hope. Through this collaboration, Jacobs and Pieper strive to bridge the realms of art, science, and environmentalism, envisioning a future where creativity and sustainability intersect.