''Roots of Knowledge'' is a permanent stained glass display completed in 2016 at Utah Valley University (UVU) in

Orem, Utah Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Me ...

, United States. The creation of the exhibit was designed and overseen by stained glass artists Tom Holdman and Cameron Oscarson. It took over 12 years and cost US$4.5 million to complete.

Description

The Roots of Knowledge is a permanent stained glass exhibit in the Ira A. and Mary Lou Fulton Library at Utah Valley University in

in the United States. It is long, about tall, and comprising 80 separate panes. Each of the panels was handcrafted from over 43,000 pieces of glass depicting part of the progress of human knowledge during recorded history. The exhibit depicts both religious and secular events and objects. In addition to the stained, blown, fused, and carved glass used for most of the window, other objects were incorporated into the display. These included a shark's tooth, part of the Berlin Wall, a

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

medal, a $5 bill from 1777, and glass from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

. Part of the window incorporates a replication of the oldest stained glass known: a window created in 647 AD at The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Monkwearmouth–Jarrow in England.

History

The idea to create the stained glass exhibit began in 2004. For the next 12 years, Holdman and Oscarson worked to design and create the 80 panels included in the final exhibit. Each panel was handcrafted by the original designers, Tom Holdman and Cameron Oscarson, who worked with over 350 student artists, 26 faculty members, and 40 other artists during the construction of the exhibit. The US$4.5 million project was funded through private donations, including through sponsorships of individual pieces of glass. It was officially unveiled on November 18, 2016, as part of the 75th anniversary of the university.

Reception

The installation was described as a "tour de force" by the curator of ceramics and glass at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The windows have been compared to those in several European cathedrals, including the

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese o ...

in Germany,

Sainte-Chapelle The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France. ...

in France, and

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

in England. The

Utah Education Network The Utah Education Network (UEN) is a broadband and digital broadcast network serving public education, higher education, applied technology campuses, libraries, and public charter schools throughout the state of Utah. The Network facilitates inte ...

worked with Holdman and UVU to create

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

and

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand an ...

s based on the project. The project is the subject of a one-hour documentary created for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

by Lee Groberg.

References

{{Orem, Utah 2016 works Stained glass Monuments and memorials in Utah Utah Valley University Tourist attractions in Utah County, Utah