Professional Highlights

Here are some professional highlights and cool things I've done or gotten to do at my job.

 

#JWSTArt

In November 2016, I organized an event for artists to come see JWST, and be inspired to create... right in front of it! It was such a cool experience, and we had such talented artists.

• NASA Tumblr post about the event
• Photos from the event, and of the art, on Flickr.  

The art created by the artists that visited us was on display at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center Spring/Summer of 2017. This exhibit, which I also organized, was a lot of work, but was so worth it - the art is so amazing!

•  A Wakelet of social posts about the event and subsequent exhibit (in reverse order)
•  Our website gallery of the exhibited art:  https://jwst.nasa.gov/jwstArt/ 
•  Outdoor Painting Magazine did a feature on the event and one of the artists.
• Tattoodo Magazine Brandi Smart and myself. (Formerly located here: https://www.tattoodo.com/a/2017/01/nasa-s-new-telescope-is-a-muse-for-stellar-art/
•  Sue Reno did an interview with Lateral Magazine. 
• Ashley Zelinskie did an interview with 3Dprint.com.  
• The art was mentioned on AmericaSpace and CNN.
• I (and several artists) were interviewed by CBS Baltimore: http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2017/03/04/science-art-unite-for-exhibit-inspired-by-nasa-telescope/ 
• Joanna Barnum and I did a 5 minute liveshot on Fox DC: http://www.fox5dc.com/news/239232901-video 
• I wrote this piece on the exhibit for NASA.gov.
• I have a list of places to buy some of this art on Dropmark.
• Tim Makepeace was a part of our exhibit and he is continuing to produce amazing pieces of art two years (and counting) later! View his website. 

I also created a social media "campaign" so our followers could share their own #JWSTart with us. As of Spring 2019, we have over 131 pieces in our web gallery.

• Web gallery: https://jwst.nasa.gov/jwstArt/publicArt.html
• Flickr Pool

There was an  exhibit of a subset of the art at Art.Science.Gallery in Austin, TX during Summer 2017.And then at the Texas Museum of Science and Technology.

• Gallery of exhibit opening photos from Art.Science.Gallery
• The exhibit got a really nice review in the Austin Chronicle. 
• Art.Science.Gallery  page on the exhibit
• Gallery of exhibit photos from TXMOST

In 2019, we were given space at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center for a small exhibit of #JWSTArt pieces. Most of the pieces are new and were created by artists coming from as far away as Ukraine and Italy. It will be up at least through the end of April 2019.

• Tumblr about the exhibit and social campaign

Other Stuff

 

• I organized an Instagram Stories Q&A in March 2019, for International Women's Day. If you are logged into Instagram, you can see the full Q&A pinned to our profile: https://www.instagram.com/nasawebb/

• We have a very cool feature on the JWST website where 7 facts about the telescope are translated into lots of different languages. Though the language feature has been a team effort, I have worked, gathering languages via social media, compiling docs with 40 language, not counting English.  One particularly cool thing I was able to do, was, on short notice, set up a video shoot at our Visitor Center, with a Goddard employee who is deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL). We created a series of short videos in Instagram Stories, of the facts that are a part of our language cards, which meant we could repurpose the videos as a new language as well as using them on social media.  These were highlighted on @NASA’s main Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat in June 2018. You can view this pinned to our Instagram account profile, or view a full video here: https://jwst.nasa.gov/jwstKeyFactsInternational/#AmericanSignLanguage

• I organized an Instagram Stories Q&A in March 2019, for International Women's Day. If you are logged into Instagram, you can see the full Q&A pinned to our profile: https://www.instagram.com/nasawebb/ 

• I spent the afternoon reporting on JWST facing towards the cleanroom window for the first time ever, and also helped organize a last minute group photo in the mirror. See the Flickr Pool of photos from the day, and a Wakelet of the day I made.

Credit: John Mather

That's me! (far left)

A pano I took of JWST facing the cleanroom window. That's Nasreen photographing us watching. 

Below is what Nasreen captured from her position in the panorama photo above.  You can see me crouching in front taking photos! Truly an amazing day.

• I helped out with a Planetary Society video shoot with Bill Nye the Science Guy and Star Trek's Robert Picardo.  Video is here. (Watch til the very end, there's a funny little stinger scene.)

Credit: Mallory Ambrose, Bill Nye (inset)

• I talked to actor John Barrowman about JWST when he visited NASA Goddard.

Credit: John Barrowman

• I organized a panel (NASA's James Webb Space Telescope: The Storytellers) at AwesomeCon 2016 and another one on Art + Science at AwesomeCon 2017.

Credit: Maha Alkhateeb

• I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to don a bunny suit and go inside the cleanroom to answer questions from the public about JWST during Explore @NASA Goddard. (I'm the one at right.)

Credit: Bill Hrybyk

• I organized a big JWST NASA Social.

Credit: Bill Hrybyk

• I worked at the giant JWST exhibit we had for SXSW 2013.

Credit: Chris Gunn

•  I've organized numerous Q&As on platforms like Twitter and Reddit. This one with women working on JWST was special.  https://jwst.nasa.gov/faq_ama2.html

• Here's a NASA.gov feature I wrote on the visit that the NASA Blueshift team took to the set of the CBS show, "The Big Bang Theory." Also: set photos, blog entries, podcast interview with the exec producer, Bill Prady, and interviews with the set decorator and prop master. We've had lots of the stuff we've brought/sent them appear on the sets of the show!

Sitting in Sheldon's spot

• I got to help out with the filming of a Late Night with Jimmy Fallon segment, "Hubble Gotchu". Blueshift behind-the-scenes blog and a follow-up.

• Actor Seth Green visited Goddard back in 2011 and I got to meet him! And there's video evidence! At 22 seconds in, you can see me telling Seth something about the centrifuge and he looks impressed! :D

• NASA Blueshift hosted "Fancy Fast Food" blogger Erik Trinidad who made this fun video about space food. I wrote up this feature (page 9, pdf) for Goddard View on the shoot.