ASM Agar Art Contest

The 2026 Agar Art Contest's theme, "Microbial Postcards," invites participants to create an agar art postcard inspired by a place they love, exploring the visible features that make it special and the invisible microbial communities that help shape it. The contest is open until Oct. 21 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Questions? Contact Joanna Urban or Ava Walderman.

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 Alexander Fleming 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 ASM’s Agar Art Contest.

In 2015, ASM launched the ASM 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 ASM Microbe 2022 covered by National Public Radio's "Shortwave" podcast.
• 200+ media outlets, including this piece in National Geographic.
• The "Microbes Rule!" exhibit at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J.
• At the AMR Challenge celebration in New York during the 2019 United Nations General Assembly.

Questions?

Contact Joanna Urban or Ava Walderman.

Key Dates

Oct. 21 at 11:59 p.m. ET | Submissions close

December | Winners Announced