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This year's theme, "Microbes Make the World Go Round," invited participants to showcase the value of science and the vital role microbes play in our daily lives. The entry window for submissions to the 2025 Agar Art contest has closed now closed. Thank you to all who participated! 

First-, second- and third-place winners will be selected in 3 categories: Professional Category, Creator Category and Kids Category. Winners will be announced in early December and will be posted here. Check back then! Good luck to all the participants!

Questions? Contact communications@asmusa.org.

Have you ever seen art "painted" in a petri dish using living, growing microorganisms? That's agar art! Creators use either naturally colorful microbes—like the red bacteria Serratia marcescens—or genetically modified microbes—like the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformed with violacein genes—as "paint," while using various types, shapes and sizes of agar as a "canvas." In fact, the original agar artist was none other than himself!

How to Create Agar Art: Video Tutorial

Step inside the creative process with Agar Art 2015 winners Maria Peñil Cobo, mixed media artist, and Mehmet Berkmen, Ph.D., staff scientist at New England Biolabs. During their multi-year collaboration, Peñil Cobo and Berkmen have created astonishing works of art using living microbes. Find out how they meld science and art with this behind-the-scenes how-to video guide.

Need a little inspiration to get your Agar Art creative juices flowing? Read on!

• Top 5 Tips for Creating Agar Art.
• Inspiring High School Students' Creativity and Design Thinking with Agar Art.
• Creating Art and Education with Microbes.
• A Petri Dish is Worth 1,000 Words: The Lasting Impact of 91Â鶹ÌìÃÀ’s Agar Art Contest.

In 2015, 91Â鶹ÌìÃÀ launched the 91Â鶹ÌìÃÀ Agar Art Contest to share the beautiful and diverse world of microbes with the public. Since then, the wide range of amazingly beautiful entries has gained worldwide attention.

• As part of "Agar Art on Display," a public event at 91Â鶹ÌìÃÀ Microbe 2022 covered by .
• 200+ media outlets, including .
• The in Jersey City, N.J.
• At the AMR Challenge celebration in New York during the 2019 United Nations General Assembly.

Questions?

Contact us at communications@asmusa.org.

Key Dates

Oct. 26 | Submissions closed

Early December | Winners Announced

We are grateful to our contest sponsors, who help support the Agar Art Contest, partner workshops and other associated events throughout the year.

MilliporeSigma’s portfolio spans more than 300,000 products with 19,000 employees and 72 manufacturing sites worldwide. Their BioMonitoring portfolio offers a complete range of high-quality microbial testing solutions for industrial applications, while also providing regulatory expertise, comprehensive services and collaborative partnerships. on their website. MilliporeSigma is the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.