ROME, N.Y. — Imagine a place where you don’t just see art on display or historical information on display, but rather a place where you can interact with or even become part of the display. While it might sound fanciful, the technology exists, and the Project Fibonacci Foundation hopes to showcase it as part of […]
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ROME, N.Y. — Imagine a place where you don’t just see art on display or historical information on display, but rather a place where you can interact with or even become part of the display.
While it might sound fanciful, the technology exists, and the Project Fibonacci Foundation hopes to showcase it as part of its planned MOSART center. MOSART is short for Multiversity of Science, Art and Technology.
Andrew Drozd, chairman of the Project Fibonacci Foundation, views the planned center as a renaissance of sorts. Similar to the way the Renaissance Period in Europe saw a rebirth or revival in learning and culture, Drozd — who is also president of Rome–based ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC — believes MOSART will similarly inspire and benefit the community.
At its core, MOSART is designed to help grow the area’s science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM) workforce. “We’re trying to make a difference by trying to reverse that brain drain,” Drozd says.
It’s that “A” addition of arts that turns STEM to STEAM and adds a key component, he notes. Drozd referenced a traveling art exhibit — Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience — currently traveling around the country as an example of how art works hand-in-hand with STEM. The exhibit uses 360-degree projection and two-story screens along with virtual reality to create an experience that goes beyond viewing art.
Drozd envisions using technology along those lines to do things like highlight the area’s rich history of innovation and introduce the area’s youth to the culture of interdisciplinary, interactive STEAM learning. This, he notes, helps teach youth to be creative and independent thinkers and helps set them up to be the innovators of tomorrow. The hope is that they will stay and do their innovating here in the Mohawk Valley, because MOSART will serve as an anchor point for them, Drozd says.
“I really think it’s going to take off,” he says.
The center will tie in with work the foundation is already doing to work with the area’s youth to promote STEAM and careers in those fields. The foundation hosts innovation camps around a variety of topics, hosts an annual STEAM leadership conference, and brings in speakers to engage people on a variety of STEAM topics.
Some of those events have been curtailed in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which builds even more excitement for MOSART as a place where people can go to do, see, and experience things, Drozd says.
His hope is to open MOSART on a small scale in the first quarter of 2023, probably with a small exhibit of a few different types of art. Sci-art or techno-art could be one, Drozd says. Artificial-intelligence projection art could be another, with perhaps a more traditional art piece rounding things out.
The foundation has been scouting locations and has several possible sites in downtown Rome in mind, Drozd says. Fundraising is in full swing, with the goal of raising $1 million by the end of this year. The foundation is accepting donations on its website (www.projectfibonacci.org), as well as working with community partners and exploring grants and other opportunities. The organization is also prepared to take out a loan if needed.
Drozd expects the $1 million will cover an initial building acquisition, the acquisition of some art pieces, and provide funding for two or three jobs. The next step from there would be to develop a sustainability process so that the center funds itself.