Paint with Bacteria Workshop
What if your paint was alive?
Explore bacterial painting as a different kind of creative medium in this two-part hands-on workshop with ASCUS Art & Science. Whether you’ve tried agar art before or this is completely new to you, no experience is needed. Just bring your creativity with you.
Two agar plates will serve as your canvas in this workshop as you paint with living, naturally pigmented bacteria to create artworks. Come with a few ideas in mind and we’ll help you develop and experiment with them in the lab.
Session 1: Making & Painting - 8th October
1.5 hours 6:15 to 7:45 pm
We’ll introduce you to agar art, the bacteria we’ll be working with and how their natural pigments can be used as a creative medium to draw on agar plates.
Session 2: Collection Day - 13th October
1 hour - 6:15 to 7:15 pm
Come back to see what has grown and photograph your finished agar art pieces!
We’re excited to be running this workshop in partnership with ASM as a part of ASM’s Annual Agar Art Contest so if you would like to enter the competition, we will help you prepare an entry.
If you fancy, you will get to print of one of the plates on a piece of textile, which you can collect from the Lab in the following days.
About ASCUS
ASCUS Art & Science is a non-profit bringing together art, science and beyond, home to Scotland's first publicly accessible art-science lab, based at Summerhall in Edinburgh. Our lab is open to everyone with hands-on training and support from our team throughout.
Want to enter the ASM Agar Art Contest?
This workshop doubles as your entry point into the American Society for Microbiology's Agar Art Contest, an annual international competition celebrating the intersection of art and science through the medium of agar.
This year's theme: "Microbial Postcards." Entrants are invited to create an agar art postcard inspired by a place they love, exploring the visible features that make it special and the invisible microbial communities that help shape it.
Categories include "Creator", open to anyone without regular access to a professional lab. All artists, dreamers, creators, and enthusiasts are welcome to enter.
Prizes: first, second, and third place in each category win Visa gift cards, with first place worth $200.
Deadline: entries close Oct. 21 at 11:59 p.m. ET, with winners announced in December.
Full contest rules and submission details are on the ASM Agar Art Contest website.
#AgarArt #ASM #AgarArtContest2026 #BacterialPigments #BioArt #Create #print