Amanda Lipnicki, professor of mathematics at Alfred University, accompanied five students to Ireland to attend a conference that examines the connections between math and art. The Bridges Conference, held Aug. 3-10 in Galway, featured workshops, invited speakers, paper presentations, and a peer-reviewed art exhibition.
Alfred University students from left: Taeo Jung, Janet McClain, Ava Webber (foreground), and Allison Windisch. The four, students in mathematics professor Amanda Lipnicki’s Math Art class, are shown during an excursion in Galway, Ireland, site of the 2026 Bridges Conference.
The annual conference is sponsored and organized by the Bridges Organization which, according to its website, fosters research, practice, and new interest in connections between mathematics and the arts. Since 1998, Bridges has been hosted the conference in North America, Europe, and Asia, and has attracted participants from over 30 countries. The 2026 conference was held at the University of Galway.
“All too often, mathematics can seem disconnected from or even antithetical to art,” the Bridges website states. “We believe that these two fields can inform and enrich each other, that there are great ideas waiting to be found in mathematical analysis and synthesis of art, and that artistic thinking and activities can enliven the mathematics classroom.”
Lipnicki, who has traveled to past Bridges Conferences, accompanied five students who were enrolled in her Math Art class, in which she uses fiber arts and non-Euclidean geometry to bridge math and creative disciplines. “One of the reasons I created this class was I wanted a space where students could analyze math through artwork,” she said.
She offered the class for the first time in fall 2023 (with fellow mathematics faculty Elizabeth Matson) and again in fall of 2025; both classes were three credit hours. Eight students are enrolled in the fall 2026 class, which is being offered as a one-credit course. In this project-based course, students explore topics such as knot theory, symmetry groups and art, calculus approximations for model-making, and cellular automata and algorithmic art.
Five current and former students in Lipnicki’s Math Art class—Janet McClain ’00 (B.F.A.), secretary for the Division of Modern Languages in Alfred University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Jane Heffernan ’26 (B.S., ceramic engineering); Taeo Jung, art and design major/mathematics minor; Ava Webber, senior mechanical engineering/mathematics double major; and Allison Windisch, senior sports and health sciences/mathematics double major attended the conference. Three of them—McClain, Jung, and Heffernan—along with Lipnicki submitted work for peer review in the art exhibition, which was on view throughout the conference.
Jane Heffernan ’26, created the “Functions of Planes and Coral” artwork (shown above) during the 2023 Math Art class. It was entered into the art exhibition held during the Bridges Conference in Ireland over the summer.
Heffernan’s submission, “Functions of Planes and Coral,” consisted of a wood frame, wire mesh, and yarn and drew inspiration from the geometries of coral reefs. She created the piece during the 2023 Math Art class. “This reef is composed of hyperbolic planes and surfaces of revolution combined in unique ways to bring the coral to life,” Heffernan said in her artist statement.
McClain and Jung collaborated on “Pink Cloud,” a quilt created by hand-sewing panels made from photographic paper. Each panel was created using D4 Symmetry group. “Our collaboration is unique: my handsewn Photo Quilt blends with Taeo’s love of bold color, creating a balanced yet vibrant fusion,” McClain wrote in her and Jung’s artist statement.
The “Dahlia Dress” and accompanying jewelry Janet McClain created for the fashion show held during the Bridges Conference in Ireland over the summer. The dress contains a pattern from “Pink Cloud,” a quilt made from hand-sewn photographic paper created by McClain and Taeo Jung, a fellow student in Amanda’s Lipnicki’s Math Art class.
McClain utilized the patterns and colors in Pink Cloud to create a dress and accompanying jewelry, which was entered in the conference’s math and fashion exhibition. The image created from Pink Cloud was fabric and hand-sewn to create the dress. The image was also printed on copy paper and encapsulated in resin create the accompanying earrings and necklace.
Lipnicki’s submission, “Little Wire Quadrants,” are models of quadric surfaces created by knitting wire. There are six basic quadric surfaces, each defined by second-degree polynomial equations. Those in Lipnicki’s work presented at the conference include: elliptic cone, elliptic paraboloid, hyperboloid with one sheet, and hyperboloid with two sheets. The patterns used to create the pieces were made using a computer program written by Lipnicki and Megan Martinez, a member of the mathematics faculty at Ithaca College.
“Little Wire Quadrants,” a piece of artwork created by Amanda Lipnicki, mathematics professor, which was exhibited at the Bridges Conference in Ireland over the summer. Lipnicki and three students in her Math Art class entered artwork in an exhibition held during the conference.
All pieces of art shown at the conference were created in Lipnicki’s Math Art class. For each piece “there is a math application. The students are learning mathematical concepts through (creation of) art,” Lipnicki said, noting that the relationship with art can help students in their math studies. “It really helps (students ) visualize and understand math in a different way. That can make things more concrete.”
While on the trip, the Alfred group had a chance to sight see in and around Galway, visited national parks in the area, and went to some of the wool and sweater markets and woolen mills Ireland is famous for.
The Bridges Conference rotates annually to different regions of the globe. It was held in Richmond, VA, two years ago, and will be hosted by Warwick, England in 2027.
