him implement the Reach for the Future Miami-Dade Art in Public Places residency at Palm Springs Middle School in Hialeah, Florida in 1998. The State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, Met-Life Foundation, Dade Community Foundation also provided support for his growing practice: Cortada served as artistic director of various efforts sponsored by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, including Master Peace (a school-based art project in Miami-Dade County Public Schools) and PATH (Public Art Transforming Housing in Miami-Dade Housing Agency). During that time, Cortada also volunteered with US embassies across four continents and implemented numerous international mural projects through grant awards and artist residencies. He did so with the support of various entities, including the U.S. State Department and USAID. In February 2000, invited by the Holy See, Cortada traveled to the Vatican to participate in the Jubilee Day for Artists and meet Pope John Paul II. That summer, he was invited to Washington to create a mural for the White House Conference on Minority Homeownership—the president was one of the participants of his collaborative mural. Biography Cortada's science art practice is oriented toward social engagement and the environment. He has created art installations in the Earth's poles to generate awareness about global climate change: In 2007, as a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artist and Writer's Program Fellow, the artist used the moving ice sheet beneath the South Pole as an instrument to mark time; the art piece will be completed in 150,000 years. In 2008, he planted a green flag at the North Pole to reclaim it for nature and launch an eco-art reforestation effort. Cortada often collaborates with scientists in his art-making: At CERN, Cortada worked with a physicist to develop a site-specific art installation capturing the five search strategies which the CMS experiment has used to discover a new Higgs-like particle. The five giant banners hang at the location (100m below the ground) where the particle was discovered. He has also worked with a population geneticist on a project exploring our ancestral journeys out of Africa 60,000 years ago, with a molecular biologist to synthesize an actual DNA strand made from a sequence randomly generated by participants visiting his museum exhibit, and with botanists in participatory eco-art projects to reforest mangroves, native trees and wildflowers. Cortada is currently working with scientists at Hubbard Brook LTER on a water cycle visualization project driven