Alumna donation set to bring acclaimed artist to campus

By Jocelyn Wright     8/27/09 7:00pm

While most Rice students may not currently know what a skyspace is, they soon will. Preliminary designs were finalized this month for an on-campus skyspace, a roofless building through which the sky can be observed. James Turrell, a renowned contemporary artist, will design the project.The permanent installation, which is scheduled to be completed by 2011 and will be located on the Shepherd School of Music's quad, is funded by a multimillion dollar donation from alumna Suzanne Deal Booth (Hanszen '77), University Art Director Molly Hubbard said.

This will be the newest of over 20 skyspaces which Turrell, who received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Academy of Art in London, has created. About 50 people will be able to sit inside the structure, which will have four walls with an entrance on each side, Hubbard said. The top of the skyspace will be a canopy with a hole in the center through which spectators can observe the sky. An LED light show will be projected on the underside of the canopy during sunrise and sunset, Hubbard said.

Turrell's most acclaimed piece is located outside Flagstaff, Ariz. The Los Angeles native is in the process of turning a cinder volcanic crater, Roden Crater, into an observatory.

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Deal Booth said she hopes students will find the art stimulating.

"Working on a campus that has such a creative building as the Turrell skyspace can only work to be conducive to creativity in other ways," Deal Booth said. "Institutions of higher learning, great architecture and works of art should go hand in hand."

Deal Booth earned her B.A. in art history and had a part-time job working for renowned art collector Dominique de Menil, collaborating on projects while she was an undergraduate at Rice. After graduating, she attended New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, during which time she lived with Menil and worked with Turrell.

"Rice and Turrell are two things I absolutely feel very strongly about, so bringing them together seemed to be a natural progression of my involvement at Rice," Deal Booth said.

The design is still preliminary and several details, such as the specific dimensions of the skyspace, must be determined before finalization. Hubbard said once the final design is completed, it must be approved by the Art Committee. The earliest construction will begin this December, Hubbard said.

Five different locations for the skyspace were considered by President David Leebron, Turrell and members of the Art Committee. Hubbard said the Shepherd School was chosen because the committee discovered Turrell had a connection with music and that he had worked with composers.

"We thought this connection that he had with music would be interesting if the Shepherd School could also utilize this art space and put on small concerts and whatever [Turrell] deems appropriate," Hubbard said.

Although Turrell loved the site in front of Lovett Hall because it is an open space, Hubbard said the Art Committee and Leebron did not want to build anything there.

"That's pretty much untouchable at Rice because it is so historic," Hubbard said.

This skyspace is one of the first major pieces of artwork included as part of a larger initiative to have more art on campus, stemming from Leebron's Vision for the Second Century, Hubbard said.

Leebron said he hoped that this piece would liven up the space between the Shepherd School, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.

"It will both be a beautiful work of art on the campus and also something that people physically interact with and a piece of conversation and reflection," Leebron said. "I think it will add, in a quiet way, to the spirit of dynamism on campus and recognize that what we're about is bringing people together as a community. I think it will create a very special place for people on campus."

Leebron said the university is considering adding other pieces of art to the new buildings on campus, such as the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion and the Gibbs Recreation Center.

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