The 20th Annual Spirituality & Sustainability Awards

A lovely evening under the dome honoring Gary Behrman and John Guenther

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability hosted its 20th annual Leadership Awards in the Fuller Dome on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL. Each year the Center bestows two awards, one for Spirituality Leadership and one for Leadership in Sustainability. This event is an annual fundraiser in support of our mission "to promote humanity's sacred connection to the earth and each other."

Spirituality Leadership Award: Gary Behrman – Gary Behrman put his faith and spiritual values into practice over many years. After serving the Diocese as a priest, Gary devoted his life to serving others: as Associate Dean in the Graduate School, teaching in the Schools of Social Work, Medicine, and Allied Health at St. Louis University; training health professionals to recognize suicide risks, psycho-social spiritual issues in clinical practices; training social workers and clinicians to help families heal from trauma, and ethical issues with end-of-life events. He conducts workshops and seminars throughout the region, and most recently provided a retreat for current and former Catholic priests in Southern Illinois. Gary promotes interfaith dialogue with several religious societies including recent immigrants to St. Louis.

Sustainability Leadership Award: John C. Guenther – John C. Guenther, FAIA, LEED AP has created an exceptional body of architecture that thoughtfully considers the physical, environmental, social and historic context of each project. His work has received over 50 national, regional, and local awards from the AIA and a diverse array of organizations and publications. From 1979 to 2009, with the exception of two years, John was a design principal and partner with Mackey Mitchell Architects. Since 2009, John has practiced architecture independently. His projects of note include the Alberici Corporate Headquarters which was certified by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2005 as the highest rated LEED Platinum building in the world. Through his commitment to good environmental planning, John fought for the City of Wildwood, Missouri’s incorporation in 1995, to help the community stop the environmentally-destructive practices allowed by St. Louis County government.

Buckminster Fuller Architectural Tour

A guided architectural tour spanning the most important region in the world for domes related to the transformative legacy of Buckminster Fuller

On August 19th a guided architectural tour will span the most important region in the world for buildings related to the legacy of Buckminster Fuller. The area extending from St. Louis, Missouri to Carbondale, Illinois contains more architecture by famed inventor Buckminster Fuller than anywhere else in the world. The Buckminster Fuller Dome on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus is hosting a tour of this areas significant collection of geodesic domes. All of these domes from the Climatron in St Louis to Bucky’s own dome home in Carbondale have a direct connection to Fuller who patented the geodesic dome as a revolutionary architectural form in 1954.

The tour will start in St Louis at the Missouri Botanical Gardens geodesic greenhouse, known as the Climatron dome, at 9:00 am on Saturday, August 19th. The tour will proceed to the Mary Brown Center dome in East St Louis designed in 1968 by the company that Fuller founded, Synergetics Inc. The next stop will be at the 384-foot-wide by 120-foot-tall dome in Wood River built in 1961 for the Union Tank Car Company by Synergetics Inc. The lunch hour will be spent in the miniature-earth Fuller Dome (originally named the Religious Center) that Buckminster Fuller designed with his architectural partner Shoji Sadao for the SIUE campus in 1971. The last stop on the tour is at Buckminster Fuller’s actual home, a geodesic dome in Carbondale Illinois that he and his wife Anne lived in from 1960 to 1972. The tour will return back to the Climatron in St Louis at approximately 7:00 pm. Lowder says that “a special guest guide will be joining us on the bus for this tour, playwright, actor and Bucky scholar, D. W. Jacobs, who wrote and performs a one man play based on Fuller’s life will provide perspective and anecdotes as we explore Little Egypt in search of Bucky’s legacy.” Lunch and transportation are provided. Tickets are $100 a piece and limited to 40 registrations, proceeds will go to help renovate the Fuller Dome at SIUE.

Buckminster Fuller • Art & Artifacts Exhibtion

World Renowned Inventor’s Artifacts to be Exhibited at the Fuller Dome

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is hosting an exhibition of famed inventor Buckminster Fuller’s personal artwork and artifacts. The Center is inviting everyone to join them for an opening reception of this important exhibition in the Fuller Dome, on the SIU Edwardsville campus, Saturday, April 15th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. This exhibition represents the highlights from a collection of artifacts donated to the Center in recent years by the Estate of Buckminster Fuller. “This exhibition will include Fuller’s personal belongings in the form of maps, artwork, models, globes, and books that collectively provide a window into the mind of one of the 20th Century’s most original thinkers,” says Center Director Benjamin Lowder. “We are excited to share some new donations that were acquired for this collection as recent as February of this year.” The Center will also use this reception as an opportunity to publicly thank the Meridian Society for two recent grants that have benefited the Fuller Dome.

Buckminster Fuller is most famous for patenting the architecturally innovative geodesic dome in 1954. Fuller holds an additional 28 United States patents and did some of his most important work as a professor at both the SIUC and SIUE campuses. Fuller built the miniature earth Fuller Dome (originally named the Religious Center) for the SIUE campus in 1971. Today the Fuller Dome houses the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability who’s mission is to promote humanity’s sacred connection to the earth and each other. The Center shares the legacy of Buckminster Fuller as an inspiring example of what one human individual can do to positively impact our world. The Fuller Dome is located on the SIUE campus just off of Circle Drive, next to Parking Lot B. This event is free and open to the public. Please register to attend so the Center can track attendance.

"Bucky in Bali" • Balinese Cuisine Sampling & Curator Talk

“Bucky in Bali” is an exhibition of Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese “ Young Artist Movement” art collection on view in the Fuller Dome Gallery from 3/31/22 to 5/31/22.

In conjunction with the art exhibition in the Fuller Dome Gallery, we will also be offering an evening of “Balinese Cuisine Sampling” with a “Curator Talk” on Friday, May 13th at 7PM in the Fuller Dome. Limited to the first 40 reservations.

Bucky in Bali

An Exhibtion of Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese Art Collection

Please join us in the Fuller Dome on Thursday, March 31st, 2022 at 7PM for an opening reception of “Bucky in Bali” - an art exhibition of Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese “Young Artist Movement” art collection.

A nice nice 3 x 4 ft example from Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese art Collection

Famed inventor and futurist, Buckminster Fuller was known for spending much of his time traveling around the globe giving lectures, inspiring young people and leading projects. He had been just about everywhere in his 87 years, of nearly perpetual travel, but the Indonesian island of Bali held a special place for him. On his extended trips to Bali, Bucky fell in love with the island-people’s culture and he became one of the leading collectors of Balinese artwork known as the “Young Artist Movement.” Bucky is often referenced as an important collector in current articles on the history of the Balinese “Young Artist Movement.” The Bali cultural history website, ubudnowandthen.com noted that, “The art of the Young Artists was mostly bought by expatriates and visiting foreigners who loved them. Each room of Bali’s very first five-star hotel, The Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, was decorated with a Young Artist painting. Famous visitors to Bali, such as the famous science visionary Buckminster Fuller and renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead made collections of their work.”

Bucky’s Balinese art collection and his exceptional appreciation of Balinese cultural history grew out of his speculation that the ancient people of the Indonesian islands “were the original, planet-landed peoples.” In his 1981 book “Critical Path” Bucky writes, “we note that the island people were the original, planet-landed peoples who explored widely with their paddled canoes and gradually settled inland and upland, being able to cope with the mountain coldness because of their new animal-skin clothing and tents fashioned from the skins of wild animals that roamed into their peninsula-interbridged "islands" during the last ice age.” In “Critical Path” Fuller also uses a prominent Balinese architectural feature to support this thesis, ”the great architectural feature of Bali is that of the narrow vertical gap in the gateways of their walled-in dwelling compounds, a gap they explain as representing the gap that occurred long ago between once-united Bali and Java. This occurred only 30,000 years ago, when the last ice age began to melt away and its waters once again separated the islands. The Balinese architectural legend-supported memory thus goes back 30,000 years.”

Bucky’s important collection of Balinese “Young Artist Movement” paintings grew so large that he had no more wall space left to hang the paintings and the collection spent decades in storage. In 2020 Bucky’s daughter Allegra Fuller Snyder donated the collection to the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability for exhibition in the Fuller Dome Gallery. The world will now get to see this important collection in the Fuller Dome Gallery on the year’s 90th Day (3/31/22) on the planet’s 90th Meridian for an opening reception at 7:00 pm. for more information please call (618) 650-3246 or email fullerdome@outlook.com

What Would Maise Do?

The Charter for Compassion is hosting a discussion with Jacqueline Winspear

author of the Maise Dobbs series, Jaqueline Winspear

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the wildly popular Maise Dobbs book series. Through seventeen books, the Maisie Dobbs series has had a resounding impact on fans. Readers have shared with author Jacqueline Winspear how Maisie’s stories have resonated with them or helped them through difficult times. Fans have been inspired by the heroine’s resilience and endurance, repurposing her strength in their own lives in a way perhaps best embodied by the phrase “What Would Maisie Do?” As members of the Charter for Compassion, we are inviting you this exciting program being offered by the charter. Join Jaqueline Windspear live online for a lively discussion. If you have read all seventeen of the Maisie Dobbs series, you will be engrossed in this conversation. If you haven't then you will be inspired to make Maisie a part of your future reading.

What Would Maisie Do? by Jaqueline Winspear

Date: Wednesday, March 16th at 9 am PST, Jacqueline Winspear (UK/USA)

Cost: Suggested donation $10 US.
Should this be beyond your reach, we’re happy to offer it to you free.

Agnes Pal Art Exhibition • Closing Reception Set For 2/25/22

The life of artist, holocaust survivor and SIUE alumni, Agnes Pal, is celebrated in this moving exhibition on view in the Fuller Dome Gallery.

SIUE University Museum Executive Curator, Erin Vigneau-Dimick speaking at the opening of the Agnes Pal art exhibition and memorial.

On Friday Feb. 25th at 6PM you are invited to attend a closing reception for the Agnes Pal art exhibition in the Fuller Dome.

Artist Agnes M. Pal, a native of Hungary and a Holocaust survivor, died at 85 years of age on Aug. 26th, 2021 in Glen Carbon, IL. A Celebration of Life and exhibition of Pal’s art opened in the Fuller Dome on Dec. 18th 2021 as an opportunity for Pal’s friends and family to honor her extaordinary life. Pal and her late husband, Alexander, relocated to Edwardsville in the 1970s when Alexander accepted a position as a math professor at SIUE. Pal, a former art director of a New York City advertising agency, found her creative outlet by pursuing graduate studies in the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Design.

A highly celebrated metalsmith and sculptor, Pal’s work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibits. The Agnes Majtinszky Pal Collection, featuring more than 50 pieces of sculpture and fine art jewelry created by Pal, is displayed and cared for at the SIUE University Museum.

This closing reception will be the public’s last chance to see this incredible exhibition in the historic Fuller Dome. Please join us Friday, 2/25/22 from 6-8PM in the Fuller Dome, located on the SIUE campus, just off of circle drive, next to Visitor Parking Lot B.

"Revolutionary Love Is The Call Of Our Time..."

See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur

A Zoom Webinar with Valarie Kaur – renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer. Presented by the Charter for Compassion • See No Stranger is a practical guide to changing the world, a synthesis of wisdom, a chronicle of personal and communal history – all joined together by a story of awakening. Revolutionary love is medicine for our times. It just might be our best chance for our collective future.

Poster Art by Shepard Fairey

Webinar Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 10 a.m.
Pacific Time • Check your local times using this date/time converter.

Cost: Suggested donation $10 US. • Should this be beyond your reach, we’re happy to offer it to you free.

Bucky's Famous Dymaxion Car is Coming!

As part of the Fuller Dome’s on going 50th Anniversary Celebration, Jeff Lane of Lane Motor Museum, Nashville, is bringing the 1933 version of Buckminster Fuller’s famous, three-wheeled, Dymaxion car to the Fuller Dome on the SIUE Campus. The Dymaxion car will be at the dome from noon to 4PM on Friday 11/12/21. Come check out this incredible and historic vehicle patented by Buckminster Fuller in 1937.

YouTube Premiere of "Seeing the All in All ..."

In recognition of the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability’s annual Celebration of World Faiths, the Center submitted a 45 minute video presentation to the Parliament of World Religions. The Center’s video was streamed by the Parliament along with presentations from Dr. Jane Goodall, Prof. Wande Abimbola, Marianne Williamson, Richard Tarnas and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. It was also screened live in the Fuller Dome on 10/20/21. On Sunday 11/7/21, at 7PM Central Time, “Seeing the All in All…” is having a YouTube premiere. You will be able to watch it live on YouTube being at 7PM on 11/7 and join in the live chat discussion. In this video presentation, Center Director, Benjamin Lowder, draws connections between sacred geometry, Buckminster Fuller, hermeticism, Meister Eckhart, the perennial philosophy, alchemy, architecture, kabbalah, integrating polarities and dissolving boundaries. Lowder will be on hand for Q & A in the YouTube Premiere chat window.

Photos From the dome's 50th

Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville photographer, Howard Ash, was in the Fuller Dome on 10/22/21 to document these scenes from the dome’s 50th anniversary celebration.

50 Years to the Day, A Reading of Bucky's "Geoview"

10/22/21 Celebration in the Dome

On 10/22/71 Buckminster Fuller dedicated the miniature earth geodesic dome he and Shoji Sadao designed for the newly created Southern Illinois University campus in Edwardsville Illinois. Bucky read an essay that day in 1971 to dedicate the building. The essay is titled “Geoview” and it describes Fuller’s vision and intention for the creation of his Edwardsville dome. 50 years to the day, on 10/22/21, Bucky’s family and supporters came together for a 50th anniversary reading of his “ Geoview” essay. Bucky’s language is verbose but when examined, it is revealed to be exactly constructed to convey the meaning he had intended it to communicate. Get inside the mind of Buckminster Fuller and enjoy this 50th Aniiversary reading of “Geoview” :

A 50th Anniversary reading of Buckminster Fuller's "Geoview" essay, originally read by Bucky for the 1971 dedication of his Religious Center, miniature-earth, "Geoscope" dome built on the SIUE campus. "Geoview" is read here on 10/22/21 (50 years from the day Bucky read it) by Bucky's grandson Jaime Snyder, his granddaughter Alexandra Snyder May, Bucky scholar David McConville, Bucky's colleague Amy Edmondson, Bucky devotee Benjamin Lowder, Bucky's niece Lucilla Fuller Marvel, and author of the Bucky play D. W. Jacobs. Today the Center is known as the Fuller Dome and it is managed by a nonprofit org. the Center for Spirituality & Sustainability.

Fuller Dome 50th Anniversary Celebration

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Fuller Dome with dance, music, art, architecture, and artifacts expressing the dome's history

Friday, October 22nd, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of the day that Buckminster Fuller dedicated his dome on the SIUE campus by reading his essay "Geoview." The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability would like to mark the Fuller Dome's 50th anniversary by inviting you to join us in the dome for an evening celebrating its history while looking to its future. The evening starts at 6PM with program comprised of:

  • A reading of "Geoview" by Fuller's, family, friends, colleges & devotees

  • A dance tribute from the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe

  • An exhibition of art and artifacts donated from the Fuller Estate

  • Plus, live string and piano music from the SIUE music department

The 50th Anniversary Exhibition opens in the Fuller Dome Gallery at 7:30 PM following the program

On October 22nd in 1971, Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao dedicated the geodesic domed Religious Center that they had designed and built together for the newly created Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Campus. At the dome that day, Bucky read an essay he had written for the occasion. The essay is titled "Geoview, Go In To Go Out" and it describes Bucky's intention for the Center's design as well as the Center's connection to our planet's 90th longitudinal Meridian. The Center is topped by a translucent, three-quarter-sphere, miniature-earth, geodesic dome that perfectly straddles the planet's 90th Meridian. Bucky was able to align the miniature-earth dome's 90th Meridian with the actual 90th Meridian so that when you stand in the center of the dome and look up, you are looking at the place that you are standing on the actual planet. In doing this, you see your place in the world from vantage point of the heart of the planet, and since the miniature-earth dome is translucent, you look out to the heavens and see the world's place in the universe. Providing this immediate sense orientation of the human individual with-in the universe is a remarkable architectural achievement and the Center is in many ways Bucky's master work. Today the Center is named the Fuller Dome and it is managed by a non-profit organization, the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability.

Our Board President, Connie Frey Spurlock, is Building Community

SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative Helps Revitalize Venice, Brooklyn and Madison Townships

Republished from the SIUE News:

L-R: Helping to lead up the Brooklyn group are SIUC graduate students Alex Grenhoff and Abigail Frankel, and SSCC graduate assistant Breanna Booker (seated).

L-R: Helping to lead up the Brooklyn group are SIUC graduate students Alex Grenhoff and Abigail Frankel, and SSCC graduate assistant Breanna Booker (seated).

The problems are longstanding, but the mission is clear. The current situation is bleak, but the commitment to the future is hopeful. The resources are threadbare, but the partnerships are secure. After decades of historical disinvestment and systematic disparities, the Illinois communities of Venice, Brooklyn and Madison (VBM) are targeted to be the recipients of community and economic development, thanks in part to the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC). 

The SSCC, along with Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), SIU Board of Trustees Vice Chair Ed Hightower, EdD, Madison County Leadership Council, and Western Illinois University (WIU) with Innovation Network’s (IIN) Sustaining Illinois Seed Funding, is engaged in community-led strategic planning to revive and set in motion a prosperous design for VBM. Other challenges that the communities face include the deindustrialization that led to rapid population decline. The collaborative team has hosted two community planning workshops that included community leaders, regional architects and planners, environmental and disaster assessment experts, economic advisors and university representatives. 

Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and SSCC director (left) and Ed Hightower, EdD, SIU Board of Trustees vice chair. 

Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and SSCC director (left) and Ed Hightower, EdD, SIU Board of Trustees vice chair. 

Leading teams of graduate students on strategic planning and design development proposals are SIUC School of Architecture Professors Craig Anz, PhD; and Rolando Gonzales, PhD. The proposals include a focus on flood prevention methods, such as rain gardens, storage tanks and additional greenery. “This work aligns with our School of Architecture mission to serve our communities,” said Anz, “to better our greater socio-environmental conditions, and prepare future architects to make real-world impacts in the 21st century.” 

Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and SSCC director, and Breanna Booker, SSCC graduate assistant, are researching and documenting social and economic aspects needed to inform the overall project and directly engage community members in the planning. “We are working to put the needs of the community first, by developing plans centering around the people who live there,” explained Booker. “The community members are going to be part of every step of the process, and I am looking forward to seeing what they have in mind.” WIU faculty are working with community leaders and stakeholders to build local grocery facilities in the Venice township, in correspondence with strategic planning proposals. 

“The VBM project is an extremely exciting one and is like no other I have worked on before,” said Sean Park, WIU program manager  and outreach specialist. “With improvements planned in housing, food access, job training, transportation access and other areas, the possibility of improving the quality of life increases greatly.” The project involves site visits, community workshops, architectural design sessions and presentations to leaders and stakeholders. The proposals will include township and neighborhood layouts with new community facilities and amenities, and proposed environmental resilient development. 

For more information visit siucarchitecture.wixsite.com/siu-community. 

SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC) is a cross-disciplinary program that supports one-year partnerships between the University and communities in Illinois to advance local resilience and sustainability based on community-identified environmental, social and economic issues and needs. Our mission is to connect Illinois communities with the dynamic resources of SIUE students and faculty.  

Center Hosts Indigenous Knowledge & Sustainability

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability dome is honored to be one of the host sites for the 2021 Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability Conference. The conference seeks to highlight indigenous life-ways related to sourcing food in balance with local ecosystems. Our Center’s Advisory Board Member and Distinguished SIUE Professor, Gregory Fields organized the 2021 IKS Conference so that we may recall ways of living in alignment with the ecosystem that supports us. The conference is free and open to all online with registration and schedule information below. The Center is hosting Ed Spevak’s presentation titled “Native Foods, Native Peoples, Native Pollinators.” Register today to join us online for this important sharing of knowledge vital to a sustainable future for our species.

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Listed below is the complete 2021 IKS Conference schedule:

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