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38-703: Salvation Mountain is a hillside visionary environment created by local resident Leonard Knight (1931–2014) in the California Desert area of Imperial County , north of Calipatria , northeast of Niland , near the Slab City squatter/art commune, and several miles from the Salton Sea . The artwork is made of adobe bricks , discarded tires and windows, automobile parts and thousands of gallons of paint . It encompasses numerous murals and areas painted with Christian sayings and Bible verses, though its philosophy

76-504: A 3rd floor banquet room that can accommodate up to 400 people for the museum's programs & engagements, as well as private rentals. In 2005, AVAM began its popular “Flicks from the Hill” series with generous support from the Hughes family. Each summer, the free, outdoor family film series features a selection of movies inspired by the museum's current thematic exhibition. The films are projected on

114-499: A large screen mounted below artist Adam Kurtzman's “Giant Golden Hand” in “The Hughes Family Outdoor Theater,” and the natural amphitheater of Federal Hill can seat more than 1000 visitors for this popular outdoor film series. The museum's many other programs include a summer arts camp and after-school program, established in 2009. AVAM is also a popular venue for weddings, hosting over 70 weddings annually. Rental/admission fees accounted for 72% of earned income in 2011, nearly three times

152-414: A second test to be done by an independent party of his choosing. That test came back negative, supporting Knight's claim that he used non-toxic paints and that there were no toxins in the soil. However, Knight's claim of using latex paint is still concerning. The Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center cites latex paint as, "Highly toxic to the environment. It harms fish and wildlife, and contaminates

190-436: A tangle of trees that twist within the dome and reach through the top. Over the last ten years of his life, Knight planned to repaint the mountain twice a year to ensure that the paint layer would be very thick. He was unable to continue this because of an injury sustained in 2011. Afterwards, a public charity, Salvation Mountain, Inc., was established to continue this maintenance, and as of 2020, still operates. Leonard Knight

228-417: A transient and retiree commune – and decided to leave a 'small monument' out of concrete and paint. Over five years, the project grew. The current Salvation Mountain is actually the second construction to occupy the site; Knight began the first Salvation Mountain in 1984. A rainstorm caused a crack in 1989 which caused it to collapse. Knight was not discouraged; he rather saw it as God's way of letting him know

266-405: A unanimous vote of the U.S. Congress—as America's "official national education center, repository and museum for self-taught, intuitive artistry," the museum has produced 18 thematic "mega-exhibitions" (as of 2012); added The Jim Rouse Visionary Center (in 2004) which more than doubled its exhibition space and provided an expansive, permanent home to its education department; and added new features to

304-1265: Is a strong association between visionary environments and outsider art . List of visionary environments [ edit ] Jim Bishop: Bishop Castle (US) Aw Boon Haw (胡文虎) (sponsor/concept): Haw Par Villa (Singapore), Tiger Balm Garden (Hong Kong) Johann Michael Bossard : Kunststätte Bossard (Germany) Peter Camani : Midlothian Castle ( Screaming Heads ) (Canada) Ferdinand Cheval : Le Palais idéal (France) Jean Cocteau : Chapelle Saint-Pierre à Villefranche-sur-Mer, Chapelle Sainte-Blaise des Simples de Milly-la-Forêt (France) María Ángeles Fernández Cuesta : Arguedas, Navarre environment (Spain) Samuel P. Dinsmoor : Garden of Eden (US) Lluís Domènech i Montaner : Palau de la Música Catalana (Spain) Kevin Duffy: Rectory Garden Centre, Tudor Village (UK) ( official site ) Howard Finster : Paradise Garden (US) Tom Every : Forevertron (US) Robert Garcet ( French Misplaced Pages article ): Tour d'Eben-Ezer ( French Misplaced Pages article ) (Belgium) Antoni Gaudí : Park Güell , Sagrada Família , Casa Batlló , Casa Milà , Casa Vicens (Spain) Randy Gilson: Randyland (US) Manfred Gnädinger : The Museum of

342-455: Is different from Wikidata American Visionary Art Museum The American Visionary Art Museum ( AVAM ) is an art museum located in Baltimore, Maryland's Federal Hill neighborhood at 800 Key Highway . The museum specializes in the preservation and display of outsider art (also known as "intuitive art," "raw art," or "art brut"). The city agreed to give the museum a piece of land on

380-941: The Cabaret Mechanical Theatre of London . AVAM artists, the museum boasts, include “farmers, housewives, mechanics, the disabled, the homeless. . . all inspired by the fire within.” The museum's Main Building features three floors of exhibition space, and the campus includes a Tall Sculpture Barn and Wildflower Garden, along with large exhibition and event spaces in the Jim Rouse Visionary Center. The museum has no staff curators, preferring to use guest curators for its shows. Rather than focusing shows on specific artists or styles, it sponsors themed exhibitions with titles such as Wind in Your Hair and High on Life . The museum's founder, Rebecca Alban Hoffberger , takes pride in

418-499: The Hogan . It is a dome-like structure made of adobe and straw that insulates from heat. Knight intended to live in it, though he always preferred to live in a shack on the back of his truck, and did so for 27 years. For a long period, he had help with the project from a friend, Bill Ammon ("Builder Bill"), of Slab City. Knight was known for giving free tours to every visitor at Salvation Mountain. An article about Leonard Knight stated that he

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456-566: The 80-year-old Knight was placed in a long-term care facility in El Cajon for dementia . Leonard Knight died on February 10, 2014, in El Cajon. He was able to visit Salvation Mountain for the last time in May 2013; the visit was recorded by KPBS (TV) . Concern was raised in 2012 for the future of the site, which requires constant upkeep due to the harsh desert environment. Many visitors were donating paint to

494-507: The American Visionary Art Museum. Her then-husband, LeRoy Hoffberger, a Baltimore lawyer, businessman, and AVAM co-founder, sold items from his collection of German Expressionist art to fund the museum. With the support of her friends and family, Hoffberger petitioned the city of Baltimore and was awarded two buildings near the city's Inner Harbor worth $ 1.1 million. The State of Maryland issued $ 1.3 million in bonds to finance

532-676: The Baltimore cultural landscape (including the Hughes Family Outdoor Theater, the LeRoy Hoffberger Speaker's Corner, and more). AVAM's Flicks from the Hill Outdoor Movie Series was included in Travel + Leisure magazine's list of "World's Best Free Stuff." Further, the magazine also cited AVAM as one of the "10 Places to See Before You're 10." AVAM has a long history of programs and practices intended to better

570-456: The Camel Yard at The Owl House , a South African visionary environment created by Helen Martins. A visionary environment or fantasy world is a large artistic installation , often on the scale of a building or sculpture parks , intended to express a vision of its creator. The subjective and personal nature of these projects often implies a marginal status for the artists involved, and there

608-3016: The German (Spain) Annie Hooper : Bible Stories (US) Friedensreich Hundertwasser : Hundertwasserhaus (Austria), Quixote Winery (California), Waldspirale , Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg ( German Misplaced Pages article ) (Germany) Raymond Isidore: Maison Picassiette ( French Misplaced Pages article ) (France) Mollie Jenson : Art Exhibit (US) Karl Junker ( German Misplaced Pages article ): Junkerhaus ( German Misplaced Pages article ) (Germany) Sergei Kirillov (С.И.Кириллов): Kirillov's house (Russia) Leonard Knight: Salvation Mountain (US) George Paul Kornegay , near Brent, Alabama (US) Chalermchai Kositpipat (เฉลิมชัย โฆษิตพิพัฒน์): Wat Rong Khun (Thailand) Bill Lishman : Underground house (Canada) Helen Martins: The Owl House (South Africa) Jeff D. McKissack: The Orange Show (US) John Milkovisch: The Beer Can House (US) Đặng Việt Nga: Hằng Nga Guesthouse (Vietnam) Mary Nohl Art Environment (US) Eddie Owens Martin: Pasaquan (US) Pirro Ligorio : Gardens of Bomarzo (Italy) Tressa Prisbrey: Bottle Village (US) Ron's Place (UK) Simon Rodia : Watts Towers (US) Nek Chand Saini (नेक चंद सैणी): Rock Garden of Chandigarh (India) Niki de Saint Phalle : The Garden of Tarot (Italy) Jules Senis: Jardin Rosa Mir ( French Misplaced Pages article ) (France) Vollis Simpson : Windmill Park (US) Bunleua Sulilat (บุญเหลือ สุรีรัตน์): Buddha Park (Laos), Sala Keoku (Thailand) Robert Tatin ( French Misplaced Pages article ): Musée Robert Tatin (France) Kea Tawana : Ark (US) Billy Tripp : The Mindfield (US) Lek Viriyaphant (เล็ก วิริยะพันธุ์) (sponsor/concept): Sanctuary of Truth , Erawan Museum , Ancient Siam (Thailand) Jacques Warminski : L’Hélice terrestre (France) ( official site ) Bruno Weber : Bruno Weber Park (Switzerland) Isaiah Zagar : Philadelphia's Magic Gardens (US) various artists : The Albany Bulb (US) See also [ edit ] Visionary environments (Misplaced Pages category listing) Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments References [ edit ] John Maizels, Deidi von Schaewen (photo), Angelika Taschen (ed.), Fantasy Worlds , Taschen (2007) John Maizels (ed.), Raw Vision Outsider Art Sourcebook , Raw Vision Ltd (2002) John Beardsley, Gardens of Revelation: Environments by Visionary Artists , Abbeville Press (1995) Roger Manley, Mark Sloan, Jonathan Williams, Ted Degener (photo), Marcus Schubert (photo), John Blumb (photo), Ron Byers (photo), Self-Made Worlds , Aperture (2005) Leslie Umberger, Erika Doss , Ruth Kohler, Lisa Stone, Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists , Princeton Architectural Press (2007) External links [ edit ] SpacesArchives.org website Outsider Environments blogspot PBS.org: "Off

646-602: The Map" travelogue menu Rawvision.com: Sourcebook Shrines.tv website Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Visionary_environment&oldid=1219886449 " Categories : Visionary environments Visual arts genres Installation art Naïve art Outsider art Architectural history Landscape design history Hidden categories: Articles lacking in-text citations from July 2021 All articles lacking in-text citations Articles with short description Short description

684-560: The Mountain was not safe. He began work on the current Salvation Mountain "with more smarts" – such as better materials and engineering, including adobe mixed with straw. After completion, the "mountain" was several stories high and was about a hundred yards wide. In 1998, Knight wanted to expand the mountain. He gathered ideas from the Navajo who settled in the area around Salvation Mountain. Their pueblitos inspired Knight and he then began forming

722-503: The average for an art museum. AVAM is seeking to raise a $ 25 million endowment before “exploring the many offers to establish a West coast branch.” Hoffberger has said that “a good museum does more than just have objects that stand there on pedestals. The great ones are all muse-based, connecting viewers to the heart of inspiration.” AVAM's educational goals are another example of the museum's unorthodoxy. They are: These same goals were adopted by The Lower East Side Girls Club when it

760-505: The balloon is now on view at the American Visionary Art Museum . The museum is a semi-dome structure in the mountain that contains several small items given to him by friends and visitors. Each item has a significance and, more often than not, visitors seek out Salvation Mountain to pray and leave an item at the mountain as symbolism of giving themselves to God. The museum is held up by adobe and straw, but also by car parts and

798-415: The canon of art history . In her inaugural address, Hoffberger stated that “the American Visionary Art Museum opens its doors of perception not in an effort to make war on academic or institutionalized learning, but to create a place where the best of self-taught, intuitive contributions of all kinds will be duly recognized, explored, and then championed in a clear strong voice.” Since its designation—by

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836-615: The community. In 1997, several of AVAM's few full-time employees were hired directly from local homeless shelters. The murals which constitute the Museum's exterior walls were created and installed by members of AVAM's youth-at-risk and youth-incarcerated mosaic apprenticeship program in 2000. AVAM sponsors Baltimore artistic events, including art car events and the annual East Coast Championship Kinetic Sculpture Race . In 2010, AVAM started an After School program in collaboration with nearby Federal Hill Preparatory School, giving students access to

874-404: The construction. Hoffberger also relied heavily on contributions and donations, raising $ 7 million in six years from donors such as Anita Roddick . Designed by architects Rebecca Swanston and Alex Castro, the museum officially opened to the public on November 24, 1995. Visionary artists Gerald Hawkes and Vollis Simpson were the first people to step through the doors. In collaboration with

912-675: The event's founder, Hobart Brown , AVAM brought the Kinetic Sculpture Race to the East coast in 1999 as an annual event. In 2004 the museum opened its third building, the Jim Rouse Visionary Center, converted from a former whiskey warehouse. The Jim Rouse Visionary Center houses such items as Kinetic Sculptures from AVAM's annual race, Baltimore painted screens, Leonard Knight's “Love Balloon,” DeVon Smith's “World’s First Robot Family,” and an interactive display of automata from London's Cabaret Mechanical Theatre . It also features two classrooms and

950-506: The fact that AVAM is "pretty un-museumy". The founder and director of the AVAM is Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, who while working in the development department of Sinai Hospital's (Baltimore) People Encouraging People (a program geared toward aiding psychiatric patients in their return to the community) began to develop the idea for a visionary museum, an idea that eventually blossomed into the American Visionary Art Museum, or AVAM. Initially, Hoffberger

988-573: The food chain if poured down a storm drain. It can also pollute groundwater if dumped on the ground." Visionary environment [REDACTED] This article includes a list of references , related reading , or external links , but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations . Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. ( July 2021 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Type of artistic installation [REDACTED] A view of

1026-447: The mountain ..." The work still stands as a 50 ft-tall piece of religious folk art, and for Slab City, "an unofficial centrepiece for the community and [cementing] the area's anarchic creative identity", according to a 2020 report. In July 1994, Imperial County hired a toxic waste specialist to test the soils around Salvation Mountain, with results showing high levels of lead toxicity. Knight and his supporters gathered signatures for

1064-794: The museum's collections and art workshop offerings. In October 2012, some pieces made by these students were auctioned off to benefit the Children's Home in Catonsville. AVAM expanded the program to a series of free workshops, called The Institute for Visionary Explorers, in the Enoch Pratt Free Library in 2012. AVAM was also the site of the inaugural Steps for the Cure, a breast cancer awareness event and fundraiser. As of 2015, AVAM has hosted 20 annual "mega-exhibitions," all of which “take one grand spirited theme that has inspired or bedeviled humankind from

1102-406: The nearby natural hot springs." A National Geographic article published after Knight's death provided this insight into the creator of Salvation Mountain. "A visionary ... Leonard worked beyond our concept of time, slowly and methodically without ever wandering from his path. His sole purpose in this endeavor was to spread the message that 'God is Love'. He shared this with everyone who came to

1140-466: The nine volunteer members of its board. Knight was born on November 1, 1931, outside Burlington , Vermont , and had served in the Korean War . In the 1970s, Knight painted "GOD IS LOVE" on a hot air balloon that he built out of patchwork materials and a stove. When it failed to fly, Knight prayed and felt that God's response was that he should build a mountain. By 1984, Knight had discovered Slab City –

1178-510: The project, and a group of volunteers worked to protect and maintain the site. In February 2011, a public charity, Salvation Mountain, Inc. was established to support the project. In 2013, the Annenberg Foundation donated $ 32,000 to Salvation Mountain Inc. for materials and equipment to "improve security and strengthen operations". A 2014 article stated that Salvation Mountain Inc. was operated by

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1216-752: The south shore of the Inner Harbor under the condition that its organizers would clean up residual pollution from a copper paint factory and a whiskey warehouse that formerly occupied the site. It has been designated by Congress as America's national museum for visionary art . AVAM's 1.1 acre campus contains 67,000 square feet of exhibition space and a permanent collection of approximately 4,000 pieces. The permanent collection includes works by visionary artists like Ho Baron , Nek Chand , Howard Finster , Vanessa German , Mr. Imagination (aka Gregory Warmack), Leonard Knight , William Kurelek , Leo Sewell , Judith Scott , Ben Wilson , as well as over 40 pieces from

1254-448: The untamed emotions resonating in it.” Hoffberger described the museum as “the best, the most imaginative, the most original museum” and soon adopted the idea of “l'art brut” for her own visionary museum. In 1987, Hoffberger and Baltimore curator George Ciscle held an exhibit titled “American Outsider Art" in Ciscle's 1006 Morton St. gallery, at which point she formally announced her plans for

1292-466: Was a "visionary American folk artist" whose message was "unconditional love to humankind". Knight "arrived accidentally ... [but] immediately recognized an opportunity to continue his large-scale gospel message. He made a mountain with his bare hands. Leonard built Salvation Mountain". Knight also began another formation, what he liked to call "the museum". It is modeled after the semi-inflated hot air balloon Knight tried to create before Salvation Mountain;

1330-568: Was built around the Sinner's Prayer . The Folk Art Society of America declared it "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection" in the year 2000. In an address to the United States Congress on May 15, 2002, California Senator Barbara Boxer described it as "a unique and visionary sculpture... a national treasure... profoundly strange and beautifully accessible, and worthy of the international acclaim it receives". In December 2011,

1368-604: Was featured in Sean Penn 's Into the Wild , released in 2007. Knight died in 2014. An obituary of Knight stated that he "spent almost 30 years building the colorful mountain in the Imperial Valley desert, just outside of Niland, Calif. Built out of adobe and donated paint, Knight worked on the mountain all day, every day. He even slept at the mountain's base in the back of a pick-up truck, with no electricity or running water. He bathed in

1406-411: Was founded in 1996. At the time of the museum's 1995 opening, it had been reported that Hoffberger's rejection of academic scholarship and her refusal to follow tradition perhaps had upset prominent members of the art world. Despite this, the museum won the support of collectors, critics, and the public through its exhibitions that examine the relationship of art to the human condition rather than to

1444-598: Was simply interested in the artwork created by the patients in the People Encouraging People program, and found herself “impressed with their imagination” and looking to “their strengths, not their illnesses.” Hoffberger found inspiration on a visit to the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne , Switzerland, which was established by French artist Jean Dubuffet as a collection of “l'art brut” or “raw art because of

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