'Blue Moon': Student exhibition of cyanotypes featuring NASA lunar images lands at Brown

Tullai subsequently worked with staff at the Brown Arts Institute to develop and install the exhibition in the Granoff Center, where "Blue Moon " is on display through Saturday, Nov. 16.

At an early November reception for the exhibition, attendees snacked on Moon Pies and freeze-dried "astronaut ice cream" as they took in the scale of the images, some as large as 60 feet long and as small as 5 square inches.

The exhibition marks the culmination of more than a year of work that began when Tullai created his first print using NASA film last fall, but his lunar exploration is far from over. He's exploring artist grants - like the Brown Arts Institute student grant that helped support the creation of "Blue Moon" - as well as possible collaborations across the University with the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, the NASA LunaSCOPE initiative, and the Brown Summer High School program to offer educational programming for local K-12 students.

"I'm interested in working with students from Rhode Island, helping to introduce them to STEM and space through art," Tullai said.

A double concentrator in political science and economics, Tullai is particularly interested in connecting communities through art and science, and plans to continue doing so throughout the rest of his senior year at Brown, and beyond.

"I'm thinking about a number of different things for what's next, but I know for sure it's something that I want to continue," Tullai said. "I've found it's a really fun way to bring people together."

At the "Blue Moon" reception, one community member was particularly thrilled to be involved: Rita Cesario, manager of Laird Plastics in Warwick, Rhode Island, which provided an abundance of plexiglass for the campus printing event and the "Blue Moon" exhibition.

"I've helped support a lot of projects over the decades, but rarely am I invited to come see the final product," Cesario said. "It means a lot to be here, and everything turned out so wonderfully."