Nicole Garcia
Brown Residential College

Nicole Garcia is majoring in chemical engineering, and spent the summer serving as a member of the “Engineering Design for Art and Artifact Conservation” team. This newly launched program partnered students with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) and Rice faculty advisors Dr. Maria Oden, Professor in the Practice of Engineering Education and Director of the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, and Dr. Matthew Wettergreen to apply the design process to a community problem. Nicole worked in a multi-disciplinary team focused on developing custom archival solutions for priceless art from the MFAH’s permanent collection.

The team selected five, three-dimensional pieces that need quality storage systems and worked together to develop a solution for the largest piece, La sordidez, created by Antonio Berni in 1964. Each member of the team will serve as the project leader for a smaller piece of artwork, with other team members serving as contributors under the project leader’s direction. Nicole will lead the process for a paper dress, History Dress #1, designed by Ginger Owen-Murakami in 2007-2008. The project lays the groundwork for the development of a course addressing civic engagement from a multi-disciplinary view to solve community problems.