Jeff Bridges Credit's Bucky as Inspiration

Bridges Draws on Bucky’s “Trim Tab” Philosophy in Golden Globes Speech

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Actor Jeff Bridges received the Cecil B. deMille Award at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday January 6th 2019. During his acceptance speech for the award, Bridges referenced our very own Buckminster Fuller as the person outside of the movie industry who has provided him with inspiration. Bridges specifically sited Bucky’s metaphor of the “trim tab” to explain the big change that can result from a single individual. The trim tab is a small hinged flap placed on a ship’s rudder that is used to turn the rudder which in turn changes the course of the entire vessel. Bucky used the idea of the small trim tab’s ability to effect big change as an inspiration for the impact that a single person can have on the world. Bridges evoked Bucky’s “trim tab” metaphor to challenge the 2019 Golden Globes audience to see what they could do as individuals to move us collectively toward “love and creating a healthier planet.” This concept was important enough to Bucky’s world view that he had the phrase '“Call Me Trim Tab” etched into his tomb stone.

“I like to think of myself as a trim tab,” Bridges said. “All of us are trim tabs. We seem like we’re not up to the task, but we are, man. We’re alive! We can make a difference. We can turn the ship in the direction we want to go, man! Toward love and creating a healthier planet.”

The Golden Globes wasn’t the first time Bridges evoked Bucky’s trim tab concept. He also shared the concept with Bill Maher in 2018 during a discussion on our individual responsibility to act on climate change.

Reserve a Ticket Now to Bring This Film to Edwardsville

Normal is Over

As of 12/31/18 we need 13 more reservations to bring this documentary film to AMC Edwardsville 12

Normal Is Over The Movie. Award-winning documentary about humanity's wisest responses to climate change, species extinction, resource depletion, income inequality, and the connection between these issues. First film connecting the dots: A look at the financial and economical paradigm underlying our planetary problems, while offering various SOLUTIONS to reverse the path of global decline.

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

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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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Celebration of World Faiths 2018

“Religious Freedom in America: Building Bridges of Trust.”

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Please join us at the Center for Spirituality & Sustainability in Edwardsville on October 20, 2018 at 7:00 for our 2018 Annual Celebration of World Faiths. This year’s program is a presentation on “Religious Freedom in America: Building Bridges of Trust.” It will begin with an animated video that explains in clear terms the origins of the separation of church and state doctrine and its importance to all faith traditions within the context of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The presenter will be Dr. Jaymeson Stroud, M.D., who is the president of the O’Fallon Illinois Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. He will share stories of religious persecution that LDS Church members experienced in Illinois and Missouri in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries to demonstrate the importance of religious freedom as intended by the founders of our country. Questions from the audience will be entertained as Dr. Stroud finishes his presentation. Refreshments and opportunity for fellowship will be provided after the program. 

The event is free and open to the public

We Are Proud to Host "The Mississippi Project Workshop VIII"

 

The Mississippi Project Workshop VIII:

The Value of the Humanities in Teaching and Learning about Sustainability:

Teaching Sustainability Through the Humanities

Are you interested in exploring how you can incorporate sustainability into your curriculum? Are you curious as to how the humanities can add value to your curriculum – even if you’re not in the humanities yourself? Join us for an interactive experience where we’ll explore just that, as well as sustainability learning outcomes, strategies for infusing sustainability into the curriculum, and assignments that promote systems thinking and a sustainability mindset. Participants will also have opportunities to extend research and teaching horizons across disciplines and create new networks with fellow colleagues from SIUE and the region. To register, please email Connie Frey Spurlock.

9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 15
SIUE Center for Spirituality and Sustainability (The Fuller Dome)

The workshop is free to educators in the region, and will be co-facilitated by Connie Frey Spurlock and Lisa Martino-Taylor. Register at cfrey@siue.edu.

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  • These resource experts bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the workshop. SIUE's Shelly Goebl-Parker will help participants think about how art can be incorporated into the sustainability curriculum.
  • SIUE Distinguished Research Professor Greg Fields will share connections between indigenous knowledge and sustainability.
  • The Mississippi Project at SIUE is one of 13 AASHE recognized Centers for Sustainbility Across the Curriculum. The workshop is in its 8th year, and has been hosted by SIUE, Saint Louis University and Harris Stowe State University.
  • Deadline to register is August 8, 2018.

See the AASHE event page here.


We Won!

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability partnered with The University Museum at SIUE to submit a successful application to The Meridian Society for a grant to create an exhibition space inside of the the Fuller Dome.

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The 2018 Meridian Awards were presented were presented to this years winners at a jazz-age themed gala held at the Mannie Jackson Center for the Humanities. The Fuller Dome Gallery made possible by this generous grant from the Meridian Society is scheduled to open this Fall. Please watch for future announcements for the opening of this new exhibition space.

Huge Thanks to our 2018 Awards Dinner Sponsors

Center for Spirituality and Sustainability Leadership 15th Annual Awards Dinner Sponsors

We are very grateful to the following sponsors who are are joining the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability in honoring Sheila Voss and Rev. Traci Blackmon for the good works they've done to enhance the quality of life in our community, region, nation and world at large:

Madison County Transit & Trails

The Missouri Botanical Garden

The United Church of Christ

SIUE College of Arts & Sciences

AAIC Architectural and Planning Services

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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.” This year’s recipients are:

Sheila Voss – Sustainability Leadership Award - Sheila Voss serves as the Vice President of Education at the Missouri Botanical Garden, helping engage, educate, and inspire current and future generations of citizens to transition to a more sustainable world. She leads a team of diverse professionals, including environmental science educators, early childhood specialists, curriculum developers, teen program coordinators, public engagement strategists, exhibit designers, and community outreach staff based at the Garden, Shaw Nature Reserve, and the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House.

Rev. Traci Blackmon – Spirituality Leadership Award - The Rev. Traci Blackmon is the Acting Executive Minister of Justice & Witness Ministries of The United Church of Christ and Senior Pastor of Christ The King United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO. Initially ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Blackmon's communal leadership and work in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown, Jr., in Ferguson, MO, has gained her both national and international recognition and audiences from the White House to the Carter Center to the Vatican.  She was appointed to the Ferguson Commission by Governor Jay Nixon and to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships for the White House by President Barack H. Obama.

Estate of Buckminster Fuller Honors the Fuller Dome

The following story is shared from the SIUE News:

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SIUE Receives Prints of Original Buckminster Fuller Artworks 

February 15, 2018, 9:34 AM 

The legacy of legendary 20th century architect and inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller will take on even larger life at the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability (CSS-Dome), located on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, with the donation of a portfolio of the artist’s prints. 

The Estate of Buckminster Fuller and Allegra Fuller-Snyder (Fuller’s daughter) donated “Twelve Around One” to the CSS, which Fuller designed.  

“These 13 prints are rare artifacts and some of Fuller’s most iconic drawings,” said Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Rachel Stack. “Receiving this donation is just tremendous.”

“The donation was a way of honoring the good works being done by the Center on the SIUE campus,” said Benjamin Lowder, creative consultant at Fuller Dome SIUE and board member on the Fuller Dome Home at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

When Lowder learned that Fuller’s estate wanted to donate the prints to SIUE, he contacted the SIUE Foundation and the University Museum, where the prints are currently being stored until they are ready to be displayed.

“The silk screen prints are 30 inches by 40 inches,” according to Erin Vigneau-Dimick, collections manager at the University Museum. “SIUE has one of Buckminster Fuller’s own signed artist’s proofs of ‘Twelve Around One.’ A few notable other institutions which hold this portfolio include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum in New York City and Stanford University.”  

Lowder and Vigneau-Dimick have written a grant proposal for a Meridian Award seeking funding to frame and display the prints, which are expected to be hung in November, according to Vigneau-Dimick.

“I hope that by displaying these prints, and having co-curricular activities and information to go along with them, it will make people more aware of a bona fide genius, who was a part-time faculty member at SIUE, although he had a full time appointment at (SIU) Carbondale,” said Stack.

Fuller had this to say about his work at the Center’s dedication in 1971, “A sense of orientation of each human individual within the profound magnificence of Universe is provided by the Center's miniature earth.”

“The comprehensive scope of Fuller’s intellect makes his world view uniquely impressive in the 20th century,” said Lowder. “The modern era has been a time of specialization with great thinkers, and the public at large, choosing a limited field of expertise in which to specialize. Fuller bucked this modern trend by resisting specialization and maintained a globally expansive vision.”

“Through his observation and understanding of nature, Fuller was able to see the impending ecological crisis that we are currently experiencing,” said Lowder. “This vision had Fuller promoting a package of concepts that have come to be known as ‘sustainability’ as early as the 1920’s.”

“Fuller epitomized the ability of being able to take STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) and make it STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math),” said Vigneau-Dimick.

“Fuller was an artist, engineer, mathematician and visionary, among other things,” she continued. “The Dome is not just a feat of engineering but is a feat of aesthetics, as well.”

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is an independent, not-for-profit organization located in the geodesic dome designed by Fuller on land leased from SIUE. Fuller worked as a professor in the SIUE Department of Design from 1959 to 1972, and since 1971 the SIUE Fuller Dome has served the University and area communities as a place for multi-faith and interfaith activity. A variety of educational, cultural and social events are held throughout the year inside this landmark structure. Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Baha’i and Native American faith traditions hold devotions, celebrations and public programs at the Center. The Center’s vision is to preserve the Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome in Edwardsville, Illinois, as the physical embodiment of Fuller's philosophy. The Dome’s translucent “miniature Earth” is a beacon for global unity, providing a place for connecting the world’s cultural and spiritual traditions through their common concern for the planet.

The University Museum of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, founded in 1979, is a repository and interpretive center whose interdisciplinary collections include more than 30,000 two- and three-dimensional objects of fine art, architecture, history, ethnology, archaeology and the natural sciences.  The University Museum supports the instructional, research and public service functions of SIUE through the collection, interpretation, preservation, presentation and exhibition of objects which relate to the academic programs offered by the University to its students and the greater community which it serves.

Photo:
Erin Vigneau-Dimick, collections manager at the University Museum, shows one of Buckminster Fuller’s prints of ‘Twelve Around One.’

 

Fair Trade Gifts at the Dome!

The Plowsharing Crafts Sale at the Fuller Dome on Dec. 7th provided holiday shoppers with an opportunity to purchase some meaningful Fair trade gifts this season.

shoppers enjoyed browsing Plowsharing Crafts' Fair Trade gifts in the Fuller Dome

shoppers enjoyed browsing Plowsharing Crafts' Fair Trade gifts in the Fuller Dome

Plowsharing Crafts supports skilled artisans around the world by marketing their products in the St. Louis area since 1985. We are a ministry of the St. Louis Mennonite Fellowship.

Proud Member of the Fair Trade Federation

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2017 Celebration of World Faiths

Please join us for the Celebration of World Faiths, as we build bridges of understanding and compassion across our unifying faith traditions. This annual event, presented by The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability, is free and open to the public. 

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Native American Musician, Joanne Shenandoah, Live in the Fuller Dome

Joanne Shenandoah

Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Center for Spirituality and Sustainability 

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Joanne Shenandoah is one of “America’s most celebrated and critically acclaimed Native American musicians of her time” according to the Associated Press.  She’s won more than 40 music honors including 14 Native American Music awards. Nominated three times for a Grammy, she won in 2006 for her work on the album Sacred Ground. Her original compositions combined with a striking voice enable her to embellish the ancient songs of the Iroquois using a blend of traditional and contemporary instrumentation.

"She weaves you into a trance with her beautiful Iroquois chants and wraps her voice around you like a warm blanket on a cool winter's night."
-Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist for The Band
  

Cosmic Sound Journey

Join us for an evening of cosmically inspired sounds as we journey to the stars! Weaving together breath, meditation, and guided journey deep within. We will utilize the power of Alpha/Theta states to bring our dreams into reality. 

Pati Pellerito • Himalayan Singing Bowls, Planet Gongs (Sedna, Chiron & Nibiru), Shruti, bells & chimes

Mark Holland • Native American Style Flutes including the infamous sub bass big boys!

Ben Von Harz • Hand pans