Catalyst Conversations

Something rare is beginning this summer.

Catalyst Conversations invites our community and Luminous Circle patrons to join our inaugural Reading Circle featuring artist and author Anna Von Mertens and her book Attention Is Discovery (MIT Press, 2025).

A summer-long reading experience exploring creativity, perception, memory, and the art of paying attention, culminating in an intimate fall dinner salon with Anna on Sunday, September 27th.

📖 Kicking off June 30th via Zoom with a welcome from Anna and your summer reading guide.

🍽️ Dinner salon: Sunday, September 27th. Space is limited.
📚 Order your copy or arrange pickup through our partner, Porter Square Books.

This experience is free and open to our community and Luminous Circle patrons. Registration required.

Tap the link in our bio to register. 💫

IT’S TOMORROW || What if beauty isn’t just something we see, but something woven into the fabric of reality?

Join us for Catalyst Conversations: Seeking Beauty. Finding Truth. An evening exploring where art and science meet, with Frank Wilczek, Nobel Prize winning physicist and author of A Beautiful Question, and Shelley Reed, an evocative contemporary painter whose work explores beauty through perception, emotion, and form.

MODERATOR
Dr. Leonie Bradbury, Curator of Emerson Contemporary and Foster Chair of Contemporary Art at Emerson College

Together, they’ll ask: Is the universe itself a work of art?

May 12th
6 to 8 PM | Doors open 5:30 PM
650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge

Reserve your seat on Eventbrite.
Space is limited.

When a Nobel Prize winning physicist says this, it carries weight. Wilczek’s work in understanding the fundamental forces of the universe depends not just on logic, but on imagining the ability to see patterns, envision possibilities, and think beyond what’s immediately visible. In other words, the same mental tools artists use to create meaning and expression.

This idea challenges the way we often separate disciplines. Creativity isn’t confined to studios, and analytical thinking isn’t limited to labs. They overlap more than we think and that overlap is where real insight happens.

At Catalyst Conversations, that’s exactly what we explore. By bringing together different perspectives and ways of thinking, we create space for ideas that are both rigorous and imaginative. Because the most powerful conversations, like the most impactful discoveries, happen when boundaries blur.

Where do you see art and science intersect in your own thinking? ✨