Skip to main content
NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Creativity in the Covid Era

Pandemic Patchwork Produced

Grates near the Clinical Center are lined with colorful check-in stickers

Art in science? NCI’s Modular Cell Processing Facility has become the canvas for an impromptu mosaic.

Photo: Bill Branson

A pole on the street near the National Library of Medicine is covered in colorful Clinical Center check-in stickers

Another, abbreviated version on the south trail to Bethesda just outside NLM

Photo: Bill Branson

A view of the NCI Modular Cell Processing Facility on NIH's main campus

The makeshift Covid mosaic from a distance

Photo: Bill Branson

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” The quotation is attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci and some Bethesda campus denizens have adopted the spirit of the words. 

In what can perhaps be called the “Covid crowdsourced mosaic” genre, hundreds of passersby have abandoned their colorful check-in stickers on the outside grates of T30, NCI’s Modular Cell Processing Facility. The pattern formed by the different colors appears not to be random, but thoughtfully created and continually honored by each successive contributor.

Back to Top