Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Celebrate the opening of the USI Labyrinth
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On Wednesday, October 3, the University will celebrate the completion of the new labyrinth with a special guest lecture and labyrinth walk. Ben Nicholson, a leading expert on labyrinths, will present a lecture, “From A to B – The Long Way ‘Round,” at 6:30 p.m. in Carter Hall in the University Center. Nicholson, a New Harmony, Indiana resident, is associate professor of architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After Nicholson's talk, there will be a labyrinth walk, followed by a reception with refreshments in the Liberal Arts Center. The event takes place the day before “The Gothic Imagination” International Studies Colloquium events begin, and suitably so. The most famous labyrinth is found in the Gothic cathedral at Chartres, France. In 1998, a replica of the Chartres labyrinth was constructed on North Street in New Harmony. USI’s brick-paved labyrinth is modeled after New Harmony’s Cathedral Labyrinth and symbolizes USI’s stewardship of Historic New Harmony, an outreach program of USI and the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. Robert Ferré of St. Louis-based Labyrinth Enterprises designed the USI labyrinth and consulted on New Harmony's. He said that while New Harmony’s granite labyrinth is probably the most beautiful in North America, USI’s 56-foot-wide labyrinth is the largest brick-paved labyrinth ever built in the Chartres design. USI’s labyrinth also is notable for its beautiful setting, circled by a wide sidewalk and brick and limestone wall, and facing Rice Library over the quadrangle. “It really is spectacular,” Ferré said, “And one of the nicest settings of any we’ve done.” It is the first brick-paved labyrinth to utilize pervious concrete at its base. “Water goes through the pervious concrete, so any water between the pavers will disappear through the pervious concrete and there will be no problem with water puddling or building up. That’s an innovative concept,” Ferré said. The design of USI’s labyrinth is nontraditional, but functional for large groups. “Normally, a labyrinth has no choices or intersections. You walk to the center and back the way you came. For the sake of practicality, the USI labyrinth has an exit from the center straight out.” Ferré said there are probably about eight or 10 other colleges in the U.S. with labyrinths. He has designed them for the University of Redlands, California; Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana; and Ursuline College near Cleveland, Ohio. “Faculty and students can get stressed out and overworked, and labyrinths can help them relax and get centered,” he said. “You can play and have fun; you can walk and feel calm; or you can use it to go deep spiritually as a means of inner development.” The labyrinth opening event is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Center for Communal Studies. For more information, contact Dr. Tamara Hunt, chair of the History Department, at 812/465-1202. Wendy Knipe Bredhold USI News and Information Services wkbredhold@usi.edu 812/461-5259 |
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