Roden Crater

In the Painted Desert, forty miles North of Flagstaff, Arizona, rises the 390,000 year old Roden Crater.   Since the 1970s, James Turrell has been transforming Roden Crater into a celestial observatory, modeled on ancient naked eye observatories like the 18th century one in Jaipur, India. Inside the crater nine underground chambers and a network of tunnels capture the desert light and offer unparalleled views of the sky.  Expanding and enhancing perception on a grandiose scale, Roden Crater is truly the pièce de résistance of Turrell's explorations in light and space.

The massive and ambitious project, which early encountered financial and logistical hurdles, recently recieved funding from two private donors.   The Dia Art Foundation and the Skystone Foundation, with support from the Lannan Foundation, are now responsible for the construction of the project, which is currently at the end of its first phase.