drawing by tim hunkin
Nicole Catrett
Nicole’s work combines art and science in playful and surprising ways, and it is meant to be played with, peered into, touched, and questioned. It might make you giggle or scratch your head as you look underneath to see how it works.
Nicole studied sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, and went on to become an exhibit developer at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. She created interactive exhibits that blur the lines between art and science, allowing you to mix colors of light like paint, take pictures that capture time, play music by kissing, and peer through a telescope that shrinks the world to the size of a toy.
In 2009, Nicole was one of the founding members of the Exploratorium's Tinkering Studio in San Francisco, where she developed activities, art installations, exhibits and environments to inspire and support making and tinkering. She has collaborated with artists and educators around the world, from Tim Hunkin to the LEGO foundation. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Brownlee Innovator award, and her work has been featured in MAKE magazine and the Art of Tinkering.
In 2017, Nicole and Ryan Jenkins co-founded the Wonderful Idea Company, a creative design studio that develops resources to support explorations of art, science and technology through making and tinkering.