The Institute for Figuring

Publication program:in order to provide educational tools for The public and teachers, The Institute publishes books, brochures and articles about our exhibition and lecture topics. In 2014, The Institute's major activity was producing and publishing a book about our crochet coral reef that is now one of The largest community science and art projects in The world. The book is a 208 page, full-color volume that documents The history of this 9-year long endeavor and includes essays on The science, mathematics and environmental issues behind The project, as well as its relationship to The history of art and social practice. The book includes essays by iff directors margaret wertheim and christine wertheim, iff assistant director anna mayer, plus scholars leslie dick (California Institute of The arts), marion endt-jones (manchester museum) and donna haraway (university of California san diego). The book was designed by acclaimed la graphics designer kimberly varella. Included in The volume is documentation of The more than 30 crochet reefs that have been now constructed in diverse cities in more than a dozen countries around The world as part of The iff's satellite reef community art+science program. The book will be available to The public beginning february 2015. Also in 2014 we continued to offer our book a field guide to hyperbolic space, and our book The figure that stands behind figures. Both books are about mathematical topics. Number of clients served: 500 crochet coral reef books were pre-sold (out of The first print run of 2000). Plus we sold 200 of our other books.exhibition programthe primary purpose of The organization is to educate The public about science, mathematics and technology. To further this aim The Institute curates exhibitions. During 2014 The iff staged a major exhibition of our crochet coral reef project at The new york university abu dhabi Institute. The exhibition was The inaugural show at The nyuad campus and was accompanied by a suite of free public programming additionally, The iff continued to expand its satellite reef program internationally, bringing this unique intersection of art, mathematics and environmental science to communities worldwide. This year new satellite reefs were constructed in abu dhabi (united arab emirates) and zagreb (croatia), and one was begun on The sunshine coast in queensland, australia. In addition, during 2014, The iff worked with museums in minneapolis and san antonio tx, to establish satellite reef projects that are beginning in early 2015. During each of these projects, hundreds of community members come together to work on sculptural installations that are exhibited at major museums and galleries, where they are seen by The general public. All workshops, lectures and related public outreach events have been freely available to The public.in addition, during 2014 The iff worked with The minneapolis Institute of The arts and The southwest museum of art in san antonio tx to design and plan large-scale exhibitions of The reef project that will be staged in 2015. The iff also held an exhibition of our mathematical paper folding work at The google campus in santa monica. Days/hours of service provided: 100 days [70 days at abu dhabi, 30 days at google]number of clients served: 2200 people [500 visitors at abu dhabi, 1500 visitors at google, 200 satellite reef participants at abu dhabi, croatia, sunshine coast]lecture and workshop programin conjunction with exhibitions, The Institute holds public educational workshops. During 2014 these events included instruction about hyperbolic geometry, geometric modeling of space, marine biology, ocean acidification and global warming. In addition, The Institute gives lectures that serve an extensive educational need, specifically by reaching women, who are statistically underserved by science education. Director margaret wertheim gave lectures and conducted workshops at many different venues including new york university abu dhabi, The university of southern California (los angeles), brown university (rhode island), The university of melbourne, and The australian academy of sciences (canberra australia). All events were free and open to The public.days/hours of service provided: 12 days [4 days at brown, 3 days at ausacadsci, 1 day at usc, 1 day at melbourne, 3 days at nyuad]number of clients served: 700 [100 at nyu ad, 150 at usc, 150 at brown, 200 at melbourne uni, 100 at ausacadsci]website programthe Institute's website has become an important educational resource. In 2014 we maintained our crochet coral reef website (www.crochetcoralreef.org). This site provides a huge amount of freely available educational material about coral reefs, marine ecology and The mathematics that underlies coral species. The site is widely used by teachers and community centers around The world. As a result, in 2014 ancillary coral reef projects were undertaken by local communities in victoria, australia; north queensland, australia, and zagreb, croatia. More than 7000 people worldwide have now actively contributed to this project, making it The largest participatory science/art project in The world. Additionally, 2000 people are signed up as active members to The Institute through our organization website, which has been linked to and cited by hundreds of other sites. See www.theiff.org and www.crochetcoralreef.org.