“The invisible connectedness of things” is a multi-faceted art/science/transportation exhibit in the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Created by Los Angeles-based visual artist Kim Abeles, the exhibit explores the impacts that our transportation choices have on Boulder’s air quality and includes a 16-foot video wall with photographs of Boulder’s lichens, puzzles, stickers, and “smog collector” plates. Smog collector plates are a process Abeles invented that reveal images made from smog and have been described as “footprints of the sky.” Abeles’ created the exhibition through on-site Boulder research and with the assistance of atmospheric scientists, emissions specialists, lichenologists, and transportation professionals.

The exhibit was commissioned by EcoArts Connections (EAC) and is co-presented by the Museum and EAC in collaboration with Envirotest—Air Care Colorado, Manhattan Middle School and Spark: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Science Education at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). 

Additionaly, the museum offers a wide variety of K–12 and adult educational programs and activities throughout the year, including lectures, family days, and guided tours. The museum's collections number more than four million objects in anthropology/archaeology, botany, entomology, paleontology, and zoology. The exhibition galleries are open to the public seven days a week, free of charge.

The University of Colorado Museum of Natural History is an academic unit of the CU-Boulder Graduate School with a mission to contribute to knowledge of the natural world and the humanities through research, teaching, and public education. The Museum and Field Studies Graduate Program offers students an opportunity to earn a Master of Science degree or a certificate in Museum Studies.

Abeles’ exhibition, “the invisible connectedness of things,” is on display through August 8, 2012.