buckminster fuller

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

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.

Senator Crowe Visits the Dome

“When you live close to something, you can take it for granted,” said Crowe. “I grew up in Wood River and was familiar with the Dome, but I certainly didn’t understand the significance of it. It’s been a real educational experience for me. There are people outside of the country who recognize the importance of and the legacy of (sustainability pioneer) R. Buckminster Fuller. He and his contributions should be better known in our country, region and state.” 

Center Director Benjamin Lowder shares the Dome’s history and future plans with Senator Crowe.

Center Director Benjamin Lowder shares the Dome’s history and future plans with Senator Crowe.

“What struck me most is Fuller’s foresight, and that we are still considering the same things today,” continued Crowe. “I also learned how underutilized the Center is. The educational aspect and potential for SIUE students and others in the area is amazing.” 

Senator Crowe and Benjamin Lowder admiring Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome on the SIUE campus

Senator Crowe and Benjamin Lowder admiring Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome on the SIUE campus

The senator was excited about using her position on the Senate Tourism and Hospitality Committee to elevate the CSS and help meet its objectives. “The Center fits in exactly with what we need in our area – tourism. We need to get the word out better about Mr. Fuller and everything he has contributed, so we can draw people here.” … You can read the full story here in the SIUE News …

NEW DATE for our: 2020 Spirituality & Sustainability Awards Dinner

OUR DINNER HAS A NEW OCTOBER DATE

Sally Burgess & William Odell to be Honored at the 17th Annual Awards Dinner

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is hosting its 17th annual Leadership Awards Dinner on Saturday, October 17th, at 7:00 p.m. in the LeClaire Room on the N. O. Nelson Campus of Lewis and Clark Community College in Edwardsville. Each year the Center bestows two awards, one for Spirituality Leadership and one for Leadership in Sustainability. These dual awards reflect the Center’s mission to “promote humanity’s sacred connection to the Earth and each other.” The 2020 Spirituality and Sustainability Award recipients are:

 Spirituality Leadership Award: Sally Burgess – Sally Burgess, MBA, MS, is the founder and director of Studio Gaia, nurturing wellness practices for body-mind-spirit through yoga, meditation, and guidance for personal inner peace and spirituality.  Studio Gaia also sponsors spiritual reading groups and an interfaith prayer circle, as well as raising funds for disaster relief, and offering free clothing for those in need.  In addition to her efforts at Studio Gaia, Sally is also a Sierra Club organizer for the downstate region of Illinois.  Through her many activities she encourages individuals to explore their unique gifts and talents within various nurturing environments.

 Sustainability Leadership Award: William Odell – Bill Odell is a true leader in his field, having worked for 32 years as an architect with the HOK architecture firm. He designed a diverse range of award-winning sustainable projects around the world. Bill’s comprehensive knowledge of design science, provided progressive solutions to HOK’s industry-leading sustainable design initiatives. Bill is a frequent speaker on architecture, environmental issues and professional ethics. Bill helped to define green building standards by coauthoring "The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design," which quickly became a reference guide on sustainable, high-performance design across the field of architecture.

 The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is a nonprofit multifaith home for spirituality and sustainability efforts housed in the Buckminster Fuller designed, miniature earth, dome on the SIUE campus.

Earth Day 2019 in the Fuller Dome

A Perfect Way to Honor Earth Day

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On Monday, April 22nd, The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is hosting a pair of special events in the Fuller Dome on the Southern Illinois University Campus, Edwardsville, to observe Earth Day 2019. This two-fold celebration of the planet is intended to address both the spiritual and material aspects of how we can be good stewards of this planet. The Fuller Dome is a translucent, miniature-earth, geodesic dome built by the architectural firm of Fuller and Sadao, Inc. on the campus of SIUE in 1971. Designer Buckminster Fuller and Architect Shoji Sadao sited the center’s dome to straddle the Earth’s 90th Meridian which serendipitously allowed them to reference their earlier work on a more accurate world map that Fuller called the Dymaxion Map. This map also used the 90th meridian as its central reference point, and the resulting structure allows occupants to get a profound sense of their place in the world and the worlds place in the Universe.

The first event is a “Prayer for the Planet” happening in the Fuller Dome at noon on Earth Day. The “Prayer for the Planet” is a nondenominational expression of love and gratitude directed toward the earth. The Fuller Dome’s translucent, miniature-earth, dome provides the perfect place to direct our thanks to our planet that we all too often take for granted. Attendees will be invited to join hands beneath the dome and the Center’s 2014 Spirituality Award winner, Rev. Annie P. Clark of Inner Splendor will share a devotional she wrote titled “A Blessing for Our Planet.”  

The second portion of the Fuller Dome Earth Day Celebration begins at 7:00 pm on the evening of 4/22 in the newly inaugurated Fuller Dome Gallery. The Gallery is currently exhibiting a collection of art prints created by Buckminster Fuller of his most transformative inventions. This collection of photographs and renderings of Fuller’s sustainably driven inventions are being offered as inspiration to professionals working in the fields of architecture, design and engineering. Fuller called for a "design science revolution" to “make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” Attendees will join in an informal round table discussion lead by professionals working in fields of design science to discuss how our built environment can be in better balance with our natural environment. The discussion will draw on the inspiration presented by Fuller's legacy and offer it as a challenge to create a more sustainable society by taking an examined look at where we have been, where we are are now and where we need to go as a species.

The Earth Day 2019 events in the Fuller Dome are free and open to all who wish to attend. For more information email fullerdome@hotmail.com or visit www.fullerdome.org

Allegra Fuller Snyder, at the Fuller Dome Gallery Inauguration

Buckminster Fuller’s daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder attended the Inaugural Reception of the new Fuller Dome Gallery. This new exhibition space was made possible by a grant from the Meridian Society. It is located inside of the Fuller Dome on the SIUE campus. This inaugural exhibition created an opportunity to exhibit the Buckminster Fuller print portfolio, “Inventions, Twelve Around One.” Allegra had donated this portfolio of her father’s artwork to the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability in December of 2017 as way to recognize the good work being done by the Center to continue Bucky’s legacy.

Going forward, the Fuller Dome Gallery will share exhibitions curated from the SIUE University Museum Collection that align with the Center’s mission to “promote humanity’s sacred connection to the earth and each other.”

Bucky's Daughter & Granddaughter to visit the Dome

Bucky's Geodesic drawings art print

Come join two generations of Buckminster Fuller’s family and celebrate a “Bucky Weekend” honoring his legacy in this region. The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is hosting an opening reception of their new Fuller Dome Gallery. This new exhibition space is located inside the Buckminster Fuller designed Fuller Dome on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. It opens with a reception on Friday, November 9th running from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.

Examples of Bucky’s art prints that will be on view in the Fuller Dome Gallery

Examples of Bucky’s art prints that will be on view in the Fuller Dome Gallery

The opening reception will feature an exhibition of Buckminster Fuller’s art print portfolio entitled Inventions: Twelve Around One. This print portfolio was gifted to the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability in 2017 by the Estate of Buckminster Fuller and was received into the SIUE University Museum collection in cooperation with the SIUE Foundation. This important set of art prints, produced in 1981, features 13 of Buckminster Fuller’s most significant inventions presented as drawings as well as duotone photographs of those inventions. Future exhibitions in the Fuller Dome Gallery will be curated from the SIUE University Museum’s culturally significant collection of art and artifacts. The framing of the Fuller art prints and the creation of the Fuller Dome Gallery was made possible through a grant from The Meridian Society.

Bucky Fuller’s daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder, his granddaughter Alexandra May and her husband Sam May will be in attendance for the gallery’s opening, which is part of the “Bucky Weekend” presented at the Fuller Dome. The opening reception of the Fuller Dome Gallery is free and open to the public; however, a premium ticket is available for private events with Bucky’s family that include a VIP Preview of the exhibition and a Bucky related art and architecture tour of the St Louis area.

For a Fuller Experience: We are offering a limited release of 30 Premium Tickets at $100 per ticket for you to enjoy an exclusive VIP Preview of the Fuller Dome Gallery art exhibition with Bucky’s family on Friday, November 9th from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Your ticket gets you exclusive access to the preview with hors d’oeuvres and an open bar before the public reception that opens at 7:00 pm.

Plus you’ll have exclusive access to a Bucky related art & architectural tour on the following day in a chartered bus with lunch provided. The tour begins from the SIUE Fuller Dome on Saturday, November 10th at 9:00 am and will cover an array of Bucky related sites and history found in the St Louis area. The tour plans to return to the SIUE Fuller Dome at 4:00 pm. Premium tickets for the VIP Preview on 11/9/18, includes the bonus architectural tour with Bucky’s family on Saturday, 11/10/18.

Bucky Art & Architecture Tour:

  • The tour begins at the Bucky designed SIUE Fuller Dome at 9:00 am on Saturday 11/10. After meeting in the dome we’ll board a chartered bus in front of the Fuller Dome at SIUE in Visitor Parking Lot B

  • The first stop is the Mary Brown Center in East St Louis. This is a built example of Bucky’s 1965 Laminar Geodesic Dome patent. It was built in 1968 and housed the “town hall” meetings for Bucky’s Old Man River City Project he designed for East St Louis in collaboration with Washington University at the urging of famed East St Louis dancer, Katherine Dunham and Wyvetter H. Younge, an Illinois state representative serving East St Louis.

  • The second stop will be the Union Tank Car dome in Woodriver Illinois. The Woodriver dome was built in 1961. It’s 384-foot-wide by 120-foot-high geodesic dome. It was constructed for the Union Tank Car Company for the repair of railroad oil tank cars. Synergetics, Inc., a company founded by Bucky, built this as a pair of tank car domes, but the earlier dome in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, built in 1958 was demolished 2008. At the time, the two domes were the world’s largest clear-span structures.

  • Our Lunch stop in St Louis at the Kranzberg Foundation’s “Zack” Building is presented by the Creative Exchange Lab. Bucky’s daughter Allegra Fuller will do a reading from he father’s essay entitled “Geoview.” This essay was written for the inauguration of Bucky’s SIUE dome. A box lunch will be provided and during lunch you can enjoy a presentation on the construction of St Louis’ “Climatron” dome at the Missouri Botanical gardens.

  • After lunch we are going to the Ruth Asawa Exhibition at St Louis’ Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Artist Ruth Asawa drew inspiration from Bucky as one of his students at Black Mountain College, NC. Ruth and Bucky remained life-long friends and an important Asawa sculpture that hung in Bucky’s Carbondale Illinois dome home is on loan to for exhibit from Bucky’s daughter Allegra.

  • After taking in the Ruth Asawa exhibition we will return the SIUE dome by approximately 4:00 pm.

Space is limited and demand is high so reserve your ticket today by clicking the link below or call Juli Jacobsen at (618) 650-3246 to reserve a spot.


This “Bucky Weekend” was made possible through the partnership and collaborative effort of:

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