Blumenfeld is awarded a 2023 Emerson Collective Fellowship as part of the Climate Cohort, a group of visionary individuals who are centering collective climate solutions from different vantage points and disciplines. As an Emerson Collective Fellow, Blumenfeld will focus on her new project, Earthlight, which brings together art, climate science, and space technology. Building on research from social psychology that shows that experiences of awe and wonder help us see ourselves as part of something larger, Blumenfeld says, “Earthlight intends to tell a story of our interconnected world written in the language of light.”

Blumenfeld is elected as a Full Member of the Scientific Research Honor Society, Sigma Xi, in recognition of her artistic practice’s contribution to science. She was nominated for membership by two scientists who named two of her published works, Astromaterials 3D and Tracing Luminaries, as justification for her election.

Island Press will host a signing and publication release event with Erika Blumenfeld for her Tracing Luminaries portfolio print edition, created over the last year and a half in collaboration with Island Press. The event will take place on September 16, 2022, from 4-6 pm CT at Island Press in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in St. Louis, MO.

Blumenfeld and her team are awarded the 2021 NASA Johnson Space Center Director’s Innovation Award for the Astromaterials 3D project, awarded “For inspiring scientific discovery with innovative integration of 3D imagery to create NASA’s space rocks for public and scientific engagement.” (Award given at 00:31:16 in the JSC Honor Awards Virtual Ceremony)

Astromaterials 3D Website and Explorer Application has been selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences as an official 2022 Webby Honoree.

Blumenfeld and her team launch new samples and features on Astromaterials 3D, including 20 new Moon rocks and meteorites, a new section called NASA Pins highlighting regions of interest on each rock, and the much-anticipated public release of the high-resolution 3D model files.

Blumenfeld is included in the newly published book, “Polaroid Now: The History and Future of Polaroid Photography,” curated by Steve Crist. The photobook includes essays by the author as well as Polaroid’s CEO, Oskar Smolokowski, and photographer, educator, and Executive Director of the 20×24 Studio, John Reuter. The book features a stunning collection of work by many esteemed artists who have worked with Polaroid film and is beautifully published by Chronicle Chroma, an imprint of Chronicle Books. 

Blumenfeld launches the new Sky Scrolls website, an interactive web-based artwork archiving our stories of the stars. Sky Scrolls is an effort to collect and share each other’s stories under the night sky, illuminating people’s heartfelt and meaningful experiences that have been marked by the stars. The website was produced as part of Insta11ations, a project by Art League Houston in partnership with Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, with funding made available through Houston Arts Alliance.

Blumenfeld has been selected as the Spring 2021 artist-in-residence at Island Press, Sam Fox School of Art, University of Washington, St. Louis, MO where she will create a new print edition.

Blumenfeld’s project in collaboration with NASA, Astromaterials 3D, goes live, bringing a virtual interactive 3D library of NASA’s Apollo Lunar Samples and Antarctic Meteorites Collections to researchers and the public for the first time.