Forms of Spirituality

Modern Architecture and Landscape in New Harmony

(co-edited with Ben Nicholson)

This forthcoming book explores the relationship between modern architecture, landscape, and spirituality in New Harmony, Indiana.  Jane Blaffer Owen’s commission to Frederick J. Kiesler to design the Cave of the New Being (also called the Grotto for Meditation) of 1962-65 figured as part of a larger complex of activities that involved the rehabilitation of historic buildings in New Harmony, new architectural and landscape initiatives, and the production of programs to conserve the exceptional historical significance of the town and promote new forms of community and spirituality, often using art as an instrument.  In relying on the New York architect Philip Johnson as cultural arbiter, Jane Owen became part of the circle of mid-twentieth-century American patrons who sought out modernist forms of representation to advance their cultural, political, and spiritual agendas.

This publication received a 2009 Houston Architecture Foundation Grant (ArCHFoundation Grants List PDF).

Forms of Spirituality: Modern Architecture and Landscape in New Harmony (co-edited with Ben Nicholson)