ASU-Roden Crater Project

Home / Roden Crater

The goal of the ASU-Roden Crater Project is to bring university planners and scholars together to work with the artist to design a blueprint for the long-term stewardship and sustainability of Roden Crater and elevate ASU’s academic enterprise through a unique suite of transdisciplinary programming: from art and design to astronomy, sustainability, health, archaeology, geology and beyond. Building an academic and intellectual enterprise around this global art destination and activating it as a learning lab for diverse students and scholars for generations to come.

Our work

We are piloting field labs, design studios and internships for undergraduate and graduate students that are inspired by the transdisciplinary nature of Roden Crater and examine the concept of place. Course subjects to date have included indigenous design and sky science, sustainable architecture, art and sensory acuity, the medium of light, volcanic arts and sciences, range management, and radio astronomy.

In partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, ASU invited world-renowned artist, Leo Villareal, to be the first artist in the artist residency program. Villareal is creating a light installation using double-sided LED screens. The art work will be installed at the entrance of the ASU Art Museum in late 2020 and exhibited through December 2021.

Featured story

Letting in the light: ASU, artist James Turrell to partner on masterwork in the desert

One of the most important large-scale artworks in the world sits in the desert of northern Arizona, where artist James Turrell has spent decades shaping the landscape into an immersive observatory….


Read more

Who’s involved

Affiliated faculty

Eddie Alford
Lecturer, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Max Bernstein
Lecturer, School of Music, Dance and Theatre
Judd Bowman
Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration
Daniel Collins
Professor, School of Art
Wanda Dalla Costa
Institute Professor, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Edward Finn
Director, Center for Science and the Imagination
Edward Garnero
Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration
Lance Gharavi
Associate Professor, School of Music, Dance and Theatre
Jacques Giard
Professor, Industrial Design in The Design School
Douglas Green
Associate Professor, CISA - Science and Mathematics
Wil Heywood
Assistant Clinical Professor, Visual Communication Design, The Design School
Christine Lee
Assistant Professor, School of Art
Marc Neveu
Professor, Faculty Head of Architecture, The Design School
Garth Paine
Associate Professor, School of Arts, Media and Engineering
David Pijawka
Professor, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
Elena Rocchi
Clinical Assistant Professor, Architecture in The Design School
Steve Semken
Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration

Field scholars

Richard Begay, Architect, SPS+ Architects

Michael Govan, President, Skystone Foundation

Edwin Krupp, Director, Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles

Henry Fowler, Dean of Graduate Studies, Navajo Technical University

Justin Owen, Executive Director, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy

ASU Roden Crater academic planning team

Principal Investigator

Steven J. Tepper
Dean + Director, Herberger Institute

Project Leads

Olga Viso
Senior Advisor on Global Partnerships in the Arts, Herberger Institute
Jennifer Janicki
Project Manager, Herberger Institute Strategic Initiatives

Roden Crater team

Turrell Art Foundation

James Turrell, Lead Artist

Kyung-Lim Turrell, Director of Board

Valerie Miller, Associate Director

Skystone Foundation

Michael Govan, President

Media

Featured stories

Sixteen Arizona State University architecture students were tapped to provide design work around one of the most important large-scale artworks in the world — Roden Crater, the installation...

Roden Crater, a large-scale art installation of light and perception in northern Arizona, is seen by only a few hundred people every year. This past year, 60 Arizona State University students were...

One of the most important large-scale artworks in the world sits in the desert of northern Arizona, where artist James Turrell has spent decades shaping the landscape into an immersive observatory...

Buzz about Roden Crater