James Turrell, a contemporary artist best known for his groundbreaking exploration of light, color, and space, has announced that he will allow a select group of people to visit the Roden Crater -- his unfinished land art masterpiece. Turrell conceived the project in 1974, and in 1977, he acquired the 400,000-year-old extinct volcanic crater located near northern Arizona’s Painted Desert. Turrell has spent decades transforming the inner cone of the Roden Crater into a monumental work of art and naked eye observatory that will, according to Turrell’s website, “link visitors with the celestial movements of planets, stars, and distant galaxies.”
The Roden Crater will be open to a limited number of people from May 14, 2015, to May 17, 2015, as part of a fundraising event. Intended for “serious patrons of the arts,” attendees are required to donate $5,000 to Turrell’s nonprofit, the Skystone Foundation, which is responsible for the fundraising, administration, and realization of the Crater project.
