The Asheville Art Museum invites you to visit the Museum for free on Saturday, June 10 between noon–5pm! Come celebrate our exhibition Altruistic Genius: Buckminster Fuller’s Plans to Save the Planet with an afternoon of creativity and community engagement featuring programming that highlights Buckminster Fuller’s inventions and designs.

Altruistic Genius: Buckminster Fuller’s Plans to Save the Planet brings the inventions and designs of R. Buckminster Fuller to Western North Carolina and introduces visitors to Fuller’s strategies for the sustainability of humans and the planet relating to housing, transportation, mathematics, and engineering. This exhibition features two major suites of prints by Buckminster Fuller among other remarkable works from his multi-decade career and is presented in three sections: Inventions, Synergetics, and Black Mountain College and Lasting Influence.

Altruistic Genius add-on tickets on June 10 are $7 for Members and $10 for nonmembers. Free general admission on Community Day is made possible through support provided by our patrons. Thank you.

Schedule

Noon–5pm
ArtPLAYce Activity • Level 2

Noon–4pm
Makerspace Activity • Level 3

Noon–3pm
Interactive, Musical Geodesic Dome • Outside Plaza

12:30pm and 2:30pm
Buckminster Fuller’s World Peace Game • Level 1

1–1:30pm
Express Tour: Altruistic Genius • Level 1

1:45–2pm
Spotlight Tour: Altruistic Genius • Level 1

2–2:45pm
Express Tour: Intersections in American Art • Level 3

3–3:30pm
Express Tour: Altruistic Genius • Level 1

3:45–4pm
Spotlight Tour: Altruistic Genius • Level 1

WORLD PEACE GAME

World Peace Game: We invite you to join us for a hands-on playshop that explores the World Game and its relevance to sustainability. Participants will interact with a large Dymaxion Floor Map and explore the challenges and opportunities associated with managing the planet’s resources. Preregister to play. This game is open to all ages and abilities!

What is the World Game? It was an educational experience created by Buckminster Fuller and his colleagues in the 1960s that explored global systems and resources. As opposed to “War Games,” the World Peace Game played on Fuller’s Dymaxion World Map was designed to inspire innovative solutions to global challenges. The stated goal was, “To make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest time possible, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological damage or the disadvantage of anyone.”, thus increasing the quality of life for all inhabitants of our Spaceship Earth.

GAME SCHEDULE

What is World Game and the Infinite Game? (20 min.)
We will begin with a group song and introduce the concept and goal of Fuller’s World Game. This will lead to a discussion about the history and evolution of Fuller’s World Game. 

Global Population GEO-Graphing Activity (15 min.)
We will create a 3D model of humanity aboard our “Spaceship Earth” on a large Dymaxion Map by using 100 color-coded markers that each represent 1% of the population.  This will allow participants to literally grasp population density and the geography of our global family.

The Dymaxion Map: An Interconnected Worldview (10 min.)
We will explore the unique design of the Fuller projection, also known as the Dymaxion Map, and compare it to common projections found in most classrooms.  This important artifact shows a different perspective of the world as an integrated island chain in one continuous ocean system, creating a “game board” for collaborative problem solving.

Geometry = Earth Measurement  (20 min.)
We will construct a giant 3D icosahedron and investigate its intimate connections to designs of the Geodesic Dome, Synergetic Geometry, as well as the Dymaxion World Map.

Understanding Water As A Shared Global Resource (20 min.)
We will deepen our understanding by adding a layer of information to our model to illustrate humanity’s collective access to an essential resource—clean drinking water.  

“Call Me Trimtab”  (15 min.)
We will wrap up with a discussion about the implications of this comprehensive, anticipatory, design-science thinking.  How can one individual make real change?  What is the power of initiative?  If the success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do…How would I be? What would I do?  What is a Trimtab?  What is synergy?

Q&A (15 min.)