buckminster fuller

Play the World Peace Game

Join us under the dome on Saturday, October 4th for Buckminster Fuller's World Peace Game, a data driven simulation played out upon Fuller's enormous Dymaxion Map.

Participants will stand on a 27ft by 12ft version of Fuller’s world map representing our global population distribution across the continents. They will be assigned natural and technological resources corresponding to the populations they represent and tasked with figuring out ways to work together across the planet to avert conflict.

The game is intended to model solutions to realize Fuller’s goal “to make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”

This session takes place in two parts: 10:00 am – Noon and 1:00pm – 3:30 pm with a one hour lunch break from noon to 1:00. While a professor at SIU, Fuller conceived the World Peace Game to be played out on an enormous version of his, 1946 patented, Dymaxion Map.



25th Anniversary Play Performance

“R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE” written by D. W. Jacobs from the life, work and writings of R. B. Fuller was developed and received its world premiere production at San Diego Repertory Theatre on March 31, 2000. Independent of the play’s debut, March 31st has also been recognized by the Fuller Dome as the 90th Day of the year and adopted as an occasion to celebrate both the building’s and Fuller’s connection to our planet’s 90th Longitudinal Meridian. Fuller designed his miniature-earth geoscope dome on the SIUE campus to straddle the Earth’s 90th Meridian. The 90th Meridian also serves as the central reference line of his more accurate Dymaxion Map. Fuller used the 90th Meridian as the spine of his Dymaxion Map because all lines of longitude, traveling in the North-South direction, become a different number when they reach one of the poles and enter the opposite hemisphere. The separate numbers for these lines of longitude always add up to 180 degrees, so the 90th Meridian is able to be the 90th in both hemispheres. In cartography it is known as a great circle. Fuller referred to the 90th Meridian as “our great global main street.” Join us on the 90th Day, on the 90th Meridian for a special 25th Anniversary performance of “R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE.”

“Use of the name, likeness, and words of R. Buckminster Fuller is by arrangement with the Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller.”

Planning Underway for 5 Days of Fuller

Fuller Dome’s 90th Day Programs are taking shape.

The 2024 Spirituality and Sustainability Leadership Awards

21st Annual, Center for Spirituality and Sustainability Leadership Awards

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is hosting its 21st annual Leadership Awards on Saturday, September 21st, at 5:30 p.m. in the Fuller Dome on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL. This year the Fuller Dome is proud to be honoring the leadership of Rabbi Susan Talve and Lorenzo D. Savage, Sr. whose combined careers embody the unity, cooperation and service that these awards were designed to recognize. The doors will open at 5:00 with hors d’oeuvres, live music and a cash bar. 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.” The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is a multifaith home for spirituality and sustainability efforts housed in the Buckminster Fuller designed, miniature-earth, dome on the SIUE campus. This is an important annual fundraiser for our organization. It is open to the public and tickets are $75 each. Registration is required for this event, please register by 9/13/24. Click the link below or call (618) 650-3246 today to register.

2024 Spirituality Leadership Awardee: Rabbi Susan Talve

Founding Rabbi, Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis, Missouri

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ashrei Foundation

2024 Sustainability Leadership Awardee: Lorenzo D. Savage, Sr.

Architectural Designer and Executive Director of I Am EStL The Foundation

President of the Board of Directors, Katherine Dunham Center for the Arts and Humanities

Lorenzo savage

Rabbi Susan was ordained by Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1981, where she earned a master’s degree in Hebrew Letters and a Doctor of Divinity. She was honored with the college's Stephen Levinson Award for Community Service after founding the Jewish Early Learning Cooperative, Ohio's first licensed infant childcare program in the workplace. She was the first non-Christian to receive an honorary Doctorate from Eden Theological Seminary in 2011 for a career of visionary and bold leadership and supporting interfaith relations in the St. Louis community. She was awarded honorary degrees from Washington University, St Lawrence University and has received many awards for her efforts on behalf of the Jewish and non-Jewish community.

 Rabbi Susan Talve is the founding rabbi of Central Reform Congregation, the only Jewish Congregation located within the city limits of St. Louis. When other congregations were leaving the city for the suburbs, Rabbi Susan joined with a small group to keep a vibrant presence in the city and to be on the front line of fighting the racism and poverty plaguing the urban center. 

 Rabbi Susan has led her congregation in promoting radical inclusivity by developing ongoing relationships with African American and Muslim congregations, and by fostering civil liberties for the LGBTQ community. Today CRC serves as a home to generations of LGBTQ families and to many Jews of color of all ages. She has performed same gender marriages since she arrived in St. Louis in 1981 and was on the first Marriage Equality bus to Iowa where she married her first legal couple and has since had the privilege of marrying more LGBTQ couples than she can count. The core value of radical hospitality has made CRC a safe home for many individuals and groups that have been marginalized, including the opportunity to serve as a site for and support the ordination of Roman Catholic Women Priests in 2007. As part of a committed pro-choice congregation, Rabbi Susan continues to stand on the front line of abortion and reproductive rights issues.

Access to quality affordable health care has always been a passion for Rabbi Talve. In 2007 she became a founding member and president of Missouri Health Care for All, a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that built a strong coalition for groups and individuals working to bring health care access to all Missourians. Rabbi Susan attributes her success to the relationships she has built by showing up; from street corners where, violent crime has taken lives to rallies for worker's rights, gun control and access to health care to the bedside of the suffering regardless of religion or membership in her community.

In 2022 Rabbi Susan founded the Ashrei Foundation, a non-profit created to empower and activate the St. Louis community and partners throughout the state of Missouri to promote economic justice, to relieve suffering, and interrupt cycles of poverty.

Lorenzo D. Savage, Sr. was born and raised in East St. Louis, Illinois.  He is a product of school district 189 and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1985.

Lorenzo completed his Bachelor of Architecture degree at Hampton University, graduating with honors in 1999. 

Lorenzo has had the opportunity to work for several Architecture and Design firms around the country, and complete many interesting projects in San Diego, Chicago, Seattle and Las Vegas.  Lorenzo is currently working for the prestigious Architectural firm Lawrence Group, downtown St. Louis.

Lorenzo is currently Board member and Interim Executive Director of non-profit organization I Am EStL The Foundation, which was founded in 2016 by Lorenzo and his late wife of 30 years, Charmaine Savage. 

Lorenzo took over as Executive Director of I Am EStL The Foundation in early 2019, after his wife Charmaine passed away after a long battle with breast cancer.  He has continued producing the magazine as well as creating public art project, “Charmaine’s dream” park Downtown EStL, which includes park with Mural on the side of the Historic Majestic Theater.

Lorenzo enjoys volunteering his time for worthy organizations.  He is a past board member for the East St. Louis Housing Authority.  The ESLHA has completed the planning grant process for replacing approx. 250 Gompers homes with 500 new mixed income residences, which has to include existing Gompers residents. 

Lorenzo is currently serving as President of the Board of Directors, Katherine Dunham Center for the Arts and Humanities (KDCAH).  Under his brief leadership KDCAH has secured the return of Miss Dunham’s East St. Louis residence, along with two additional Victorian era homes used by Miss Dunham for visiting academics, dancers, artists.  Plans are for Miss Dunham’s residence to become offices and resource center for the Community, while additional two homes will be developed to become bed and breakfast for visitors, creating revenue for the Museum and workshop’s continued survival.

Lorenzo is currently residing in East St. Louis, IL and also a member of the East St. Louis Planning Commission.

The 20th Annual Spirituality & Sustainability Awards

A lovely evening under the dome honoring Gary Behrman and John Guenther

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability hosted its 20th annual Leadership Awards in the Fuller Dome on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL. Each year the Center bestows two awards, one for Spirituality Leadership and one for Leadership in Sustainability. This event is an annual fundraiser in support of our mission "to promote humanity's sacred connection to the earth and each other."

Spirituality Leadership Award: Gary Behrman – Gary Behrman put his faith and spiritual values into practice over many years. After serving the Diocese as a priest, Gary devoted his life to serving others: as Associate Dean in the Graduate School, teaching in the Schools of Social Work, Medicine, and Allied Health at St. Louis University; training health professionals to recognize suicide risks, psycho-social spiritual issues in clinical practices; training social workers and clinicians to help families heal from trauma, and ethical issues with end-of-life events. He conducts workshops and seminars throughout the region, and most recently provided a retreat for current and former Catholic priests in Southern Illinois. Gary promotes interfaith dialogue with several religious societies including recent immigrants to St. Louis.

Sustainability Leadership Award: John C. Guenther – John C. Guenther, FAIA, LEED AP has created an exceptional body of architecture that thoughtfully considers the physical, environmental, social and historic context of each project. His work has received over 50 national, regional, and local awards from the AIA and a diverse array of organizations and publications. From 1979 to 2009, with the exception of two years, John was a design principal and partner with Mackey Mitchell Architects. Since 2009, John has practiced architecture independently. His projects of note include the Alberici Corporate Headquarters which was certified by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2005 as the highest rated LEED Platinum building in the world. Through his commitment to good environmental planning, John fought for the City of Wildwood, Missouri’s incorporation in 1995, to help the community stop the environmentally-destructive practices allowed by St. Louis County government.

Buckminster Fuller Architectural Tour

A guided architectural tour spanning the most important region in the world for domes related to the transformative legacy of Buckminster Fuller

On August 19th a guided architectural tour will span the most important region in the world for buildings related to the legacy of Buckminster Fuller. The area extending from St. Louis, Missouri to Carbondale, Illinois contains more architecture by famed inventor Buckminster Fuller than anywhere else in the world. The Buckminster Fuller Dome on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus is hosting a tour of this areas significant collection of geodesic domes. All of these domes from the Climatron in St Louis to Bucky’s own dome home in Carbondale have a direct connection to Fuller who patented the geodesic dome as a revolutionary architectural form in 1954.

The tour will start in St Louis at the Missouri Botanical Gardens geodesic greenhouse, known as the Climatron dome, at 9:00 am on Saturday, August 19th. The tour will proceed to the Mary Brown Center dome in East St Louis designed in 1968 by the company that Fuller founded, Synergetics Inc. The next stop will be at the 384-foot-wide by 120-foot-tall dome in Wood River built in 1961 for the Union Tank Car Company by Synergetics Inc. The lunch hour will be spent in the miniature-earth Fuller Dome (originally named the Religious Center) that Buckminster Fuller designed with his architectural partner Shoji Sadao for the SIUE campus in 1971. The last stop on the tour is at Buckminster Fuller’s actual home, a geodesic dome in Carbondale Illinois that he and his wife Anne lived in from 1960 to 1972. The tour will return back to the Climatron in St Louis at approximately 7:00 pm. Lowder says that “a special guest guide will be joining us on the bus for this tour, playwright, actor and Bucky scholar, D. W. Jacobs, who wrote and performs a one man play based on Fuller’s life will provide perspective and anecdotes as we explore Little Egypt in search of Bucky’s legacy.” Lunch and transportation are provided. Tickets are $100 a piece and limited to 40 registrations, proceeds will go to help renovate the Fuller Dome at SIUE.

Buckminster Fuller • Art & Artifacts Exhibtion

World Renowned Inventor’s Artifacts to be Exhibited at the Fuller Dome

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is hosting an exhibition of famed inventor Buckminster Fuller’s personal artwork and artifacts. The Center is inviting everyone to join them for an opening reception of this important exhibition in the Fuller Dome, on the SIU Edwardsville campus, Saturday, April 15th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. This exhibition represents the highlights from a collection of artifacts donated to the Center in recent years by the Estate of Buckminster Fuller. “This exhibition will include Fuller’s personal belongings in the form of maps, artwork, models, globes, and books that collectively provide a window into the mind of one of the 20th Century’s most original thinkers,” says Center Director Benjamin Lowder. “We are excited to share some new donations that were acquired for this collection as recent as February of this year.” The Center will also use this reception as an opportunity to publicly thank the Meridian Society for two recent grants that have benefited the Fuller Dome.

Buckminster Fuller is most famous for patenting the architecturally innovative geodesic dome in 1954. Fuller holds an additional 28 United States patents and did some of his most important work as a professor at both the SIUC and SIUE campuses. Fuller built the miniature earth Fuller Dome (originally named the Religious Center) for the SIUE campus in 1971. Today the Fuller Dome houses the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability who’s mission is to promote humanity’s sacred connection to the earth and each other. The Center shares the legacy of Buckminster Fuller as an inspiring example of what one human individual can do to positively impact our world. The Fuller Dome is located on the SIUE campus just off of Circle Drive, next to Parking Lot B. This event is free and open to the public. Please register to attend so the Center can track attendance.

"Bucky in Bali" • Balinese Cuisine Sampling & Curator Talk

“Bucky in Bali” is an exhibition of Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese “ Young Artist Movement” art collection on view in the Fuller Dome Gallery from 3/31/22 to 5/31/22.

In conjunction with the art exhibition in the Fuller Dome Gallery, we will also be offering an evening of “Balinese Cuisine Sampling” with a “Curator Talk” on Friday, May 13th at 7PM in the Fuller Dome. Limited to the first 40 reservations.

Bucky in Bali

An Exhibtion of Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese Art Collection

Please join us in the Fuller Dome on Thursday, March 31st, 2022 at 7PM for an opening reception of “Bucky in Bali” - an art exhibition of Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese “Young Artist Movement” art collection.

A nice nice 3 x 4 ft example from Buckminster Fuller’s Balinese art Collection

Famed inventor and futurist, Buckminster Fuller was known for spending much of his time traveling around the globe giving lectures, inspiring young people and leading projects. He had been just about everywhere in his 87 years, of nearly perpetual travel, but the Indonesian island of Bali held a special place for him. On his extended trips to Bali, Bucky fell in love with the island-people’s culture and he became one of the leading collectors of Balinese artwork known as the “Young Artist Movement.” Bucky is often referenced as an important collector in current articles on the history of the Balinese “Young Artist Movement.” The Bali cultural history website, ubudnowandthen.com noted that, “The art of the Young Artists was mostly bought by expatriates and visiting foreigners who loved them. Each room of Bali’s very first five-star hotel, The Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, was decorated with a Young Artist painting. Famous visitors to Bali, such as the famous science visionary Buckminster Fuller and renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead made collections of their work.”

Bucky’s Balinese art collection and his exceptional appreciation of Balinese cultural history grew out of his speculation that the ancient people of the Indonesian islands “were the original, planet-landed peoples.” In his 1981 book “Critical Path” Bucky writes, “we note that the island people were the original, planet-landed peoples who explored widely with their paddled canoes and gradually settled inland and upland, being able to cope with the mountain coldness because of their new animal-skin clothing and tents fashioned from the skins of wild animals that roamed into their peninsula-interbridged "islands" during the last ice age.” In “Critical Path” Fuller also uses a prominent Balinese architectural feature to support this thesis, ”the great architectural feature of Bali is that of the narrow vertical gap in the gateways of their walled-in dwelling compounds, a gap they explain as representing the gap that occurred long ago between once-united Bali and Java. This occurred only 30,000 years ago, when the last ice age began to melt away and its waters once again separated the islands. The Balinese architectural legend-supported memory thus goes back 30,000 years.”

Bucky’s important collection of Balinese “Young Artist Movement” paintings grew so large that he had no more wall space left to hang the paintings and the collection spent decades in storage. In 2020 Bucky’s daughter Allegra Fuller Snyder donated the collection to the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability for exhibition in the Fuller Dome Gallery. The world will now get to see this important collection in the Fuller Dome Gallery on the year’s 90th Day (3/31/22) on the planet’s 90th Meridian for an opening reception at 7:00 pm. for more information please call (618) 650-3246 or email fullerdome@outlook.com

YouTube Premiere of "Seeing the All in All ..."

In recognition of the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability’s annual Celebration of World Faiths, the Center submitted a 45 minute video presentation to the Parliament of World Religions. The Center’s video was streamed by the Parliament along with presentations from Dr. Jane Goodall, Prof. Wande Abimbola, Marianne Williamson, Richard Tarnas and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. It was also screened live in the Fuller Dome on 10/20/21. On Sunday 11/7/21, at 7PM Central Time, “Seeing the All in All…” is having a YouTube premiere. You will be able to watch it live on YouTube being at 7PM on 11/7 and join in the live chat discussion. In this video presentation, Center Director, Benjamin Lowder, draws connections between sacred geometry, Buckminster Fuller, hermeticism, Meister Eckhart, the perennial philosophy, alchemy, architecture, kabbalah, integrating polarities and dissolving boundaries. Lowder will be on hand for Q & A in the YouTube Premiere chat window.

Photos From the dome's 50th

Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville photographer, Howard Ash, was in the Fuller Dome on 10/22/21 to document these scenes from the dome’s 50th anniversary celebration.

50 Years to the Day, A Reading of Bucky's "Geoview"

10/22/21 Celebration in the Dome

On 10/22/71 Buckminster Fuller dedicated the miniature earth geodesic dome he and Shoji Sadao designed for the newly created Southern Illinois University campus in Edwardsville Illinois. Bucky read an essay that day in 1971 to dedicate the building. The essay is titled “Geoview” and it describes Fuller’s vision and intention for the creation of his Edwardsville dome. 50 years to the day, on 10/22/21, Bucky’s family and supporters came together for a 50th anniversary reading of his “ Geoview” essay. Bucky’s language is verbose but when examined, it is revealed to be exactly constructed to convey the meaning he had intended it to communicate. Get inside the mind of Buckminster Fuller and enjoy this 50th Aniiversary reading of “Geoview” :

A 50th Anniversary reading of Buckminster Fuller's "Geoview" essay, originally read by Bucky for the 1971 dedication of his Religious Center, miniature-earth, "Geoscope" dome built on the SIUE campus. "Geoview" is read here on 10/22/21 (50 years from the day Bucky read it) by Bucky's grandson Jaime Snyder, his granddaughter Alexandra Snyder May, Bucky scholar David McConville, Bucky's colleague Amy Edmondson, Bucky devotee Benjamin Lowder, Bucky's niece Lucilla Fuller Marvel, and author of the Bucky play D. W. Jacobs. Today the Center is known as the Fuller Dome and it is managed by a nonprofit org. the Center for Spirituality & Sustainability.

Fuller Dome 50th Anniversary Celebration

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Fuller Dome with dance, music, art, architecture, and artifacts expressing the dome's history

Friday, October 22nd, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of the day that Buckminster Fuller dedicated his dome on the SIUE campus by reading his essay "Geoview." The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability would like to mark the Fuller Dome's 50th anniversary by inviting you to join us in the dome for an evening celebrating its history while looking to its future. The evening starts at 6PM with program comprised of:

  • A reading of "Geoview" by Fuller's, family, friends, colleges & devotees

  • A dance tribute from the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe

  • An exhibition of art and artifacts donated from the Fuller Estate

  • Plus, live string and piano music from the SIUE music department

The 50th Anniversary Exhibition opens in the Fuller Dome Gallery at 7:30 PM following the program

On October 22nd in 1971, Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao dedicated the geodesic domed Religious Center that they had designed and built together for the newly created Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Campus. At the dome that day, Bucky read an essay he had written for the occasion. The essay is titled "Geoview, Go In To Go Out" and it describes Bucky's intention for the Center's design as well as the Center's connection to our planet's 90th longitudinal Meridian. The Center is topped by a translucent, three-quarter-sphere, miniature-earth, geodesic dome that perfectly straddles the planet's 90th Meridian. Bucky was able to align the miniature-earth dome's 90th Meridian with the actual 90th Meridian so that when you stand in the center of the dome and look up, you are looking at the place that you are standing on the actual planet. In doing this, you see your place in the world from vantage point of the heart of the planet, and since the miniature-earth dome is translucent, you look out to the heavens and see the world's place in the universe. Providing this immediate sense orientation of the human individual with-in the universe is a remarkable architectural achievement and the Center is in many ways Bucky's master work. Today the Center is named the Fuller Dome and it is managed by a non-profit organization, the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability.

Senator Crowe Visits the Dome

“When you live close to something, you can take it for granted,” said Crowe. “I grew up in Wood River and was familiar with the Dome, but I certainly didn’t understand the significance of it. It’s been a real educational experience for me. There are people outside of the country who recognize the importance of and the legacy of (sustainability pioneer) R. Buckminster Fuller. He and his contributions should be better known in our country, region and state.” 

Center Director Benjamin Lowder shares the Dome’s history and future plans with Senator Crowe.

Center Director Benjamin Lowder shares the Dome’s history and future plans with Senator Crowe.

“What struck me most is Fuller’s foresight, and that we are still considering the same things today,” continued Crowe. “I also learned how underutilized the Center is. The educational aspect and potential for SIUE students and others in the area is amazing.” 

Senator Crowe and Benjamin Lowder admiring Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome on the SIUE campus

Senator Crowe and Benjamin Lowder admiring Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome on the SIUE campus

The senator was excited about using her position on the Senate Tourism and Hospitality Committee to elevate the CSS and help meet its objectives. “The Center fits in exactly with what we need in our area – tourism. We need to get the word out better about Mr. Fuller and everything he has contributed, so we can draw people here.” … You can read the full story here in the SIUE News …