Nebraska Dark Sky

Permanent Site-Specific Installation:
University of Nebraska Omaha
STEM Trail, Roskens Hall

Supported by the 1% for Art, Nebraska Arts Council

— — —

Mural 1: Milky Way
22’ X 12’
Acrylic Paint, Sintra, Copper Leaf

Mural 2: American Nebula
3’ X 9’
Acrylic Paint, Sintra, Copper Leaf

Glass Wall: Bluestem Prickly Poppy and Blazing Star
87’ X 9’
Acrylic Paint, 15 panes of 42 X 60”, Etched Glass, LEDs, Microcontrollers, Sensors

2024

This three-site installation celebrates a valuable Nebraska natural resource: dark skies. Each summer, amateur astronomers gather at Merritt Reservoir, one of the darkest places in the country, to observe deep-space objects using personal telescopes. Photographs taken at this event inspired these murals. Stars are mapped directly to these images, and copper goldenrod and pollen, float before the sky.

The hallway leading to the atrium features glass panels covering a star mural. Each pane of glass is engraved with hand-drawn images of Merritt Reservoir's botanical specimens as seen under a microscope. They are then surrounded by 360 LEDs wired to a custom circuit board with a microcontroller and sensor activated by human motion. As people walk down the hall, their presence illuminates the drawings and obscures the stars. When they are still, the glass sunsets, revealing the stars again.