New Living ‘GeoLab’ Slated to Become Education and Art Space at the U of A
Early conceptual drawing for team discussion by Carl Smith, U of A professor of landscape architecture
While the impressive 150-year story of the University of Arkansas began in 1871, the story of the GeoLab, a new public education and art space on campus, began many, many years earlier.
Millions of years, actually.
“Think about something like the Arkansas novaculite,” said Chris Liner, interim associate dean of Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and professor of geosciences. “As far back as the state goes, novaculite has been part of the story.”
Arkansas novaculite is just one of the rocks slated for display in the Department of Geosciences’ GeoLab. The 50-by-90-feet outdoor garden, to be situated in a courtyard outside Gearhart Hall, will feature 20 to 25 rock specimens from throughout Arkansas and serve as a living lab for students studying the geosciences, as well as a common space for the U of A’s everyday visitors.
And while the lab will be vital to geosciences students and faculty, there’s a larger theme unfolding, according to Mac McGilvery, a geosciences faculty member whose “Geography of Arkansas” course he expects will come to know the GeoLab remarkably well.
“This is really the all-encompassing story of Arkansas rock,” McGilvery said.
To capture this story, Liner and McGilvery have set out across The Natural State, including a 1,000-mile state road trip last summer, meeting with quarries to select the rocks that’ll best serve the GeoLab.
Along the way, they’ve met owners and operators eager to contribute to the project. Liner, whose passion for the state’s geography and geology date back to his childhood in northwest Arkansas, said quarries’ support has been integral to capturing the full story – which spans from the Gulf Coastal Plain of the Mississippi Delta to the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas.
“These rocks are characteristic — they’re meant to represent the entire surface geology of the state,” Liner said.
The value of representing the state with such magnitude, and the value of the collection’s home at the U of A, can’t be understated, said Carl Smith, professor of landscape architecture.
“There are so few disciplines on this campus not directly affected by place — by what it is about the relationship between the geography of Northwest Arkansas and its culture that makes it so specific and unique,” Smith said. “And of course, underlying all of that is geology, right?”
“And as the land-grant institution of Arkansas, the very presence of the university is really predicated on the understanding that we are of this state, we are of the people of the state, we are of the culture of the state, and ultimately, we are, therefore, of the geology of the state,” Smith added.
The lab’s deep symbolism is proof enough for Smith that the GeoLab is just as much a space for art as it is a space for education.
“It’s very clear that this project is also in service to providing public art on our campus,” Smith said. “As a landscape architect, thinking about the spatial aspects of this, there’s going to have to be the careful placement and choreography of these pieces, and then people can start to see the samples in a completely different way — that they’re not just the sort of neutral or mute pieces of random rock but something that has a story to them.”
Especially interesting to Smith, McGilvery, and Liner alike is how the garden, as a work of art and opportunity for learning, will change and reveal itself in new ways with weather and time.
“It’s going to look different at early morning, noon, and night,” Liner said. “It’s going to look different at high summer and in midwinter. And it’s going to look different wet and dry — for example, some of these rocks only really pop when they’re wet.”
Liner said he’s also eager to see how the space’s reach will extend beyond the university and those intimately familiar with the rocks.
“If you’re a kindergarten teacher, you can bring your class up here, and they can enjoy it because it’s a great place to hang out,” Liner said. “If you want to bring a high school science class, you can talk about different kinds of rocks, sandstone, limestone, and dolomite here. And if you’re an English major walking by, you might just see a beautiful place where you want to sit and read a book in the shade of a native Arkansas tree beside a native Arkansas rock.”
In the same way that the Old Main lawn arboretum – which is home to nearly one of every native Arkansas tree species – provides access to a deeper story about our state, McGilvery is eager to see the GeoLab provide similar access and understanding.
With plaques and QR codes planned to accompany each rock, the GeoLab will invite students and guests alike to dive into the history and significance of the rocks, learning more about their selection and significance.
Not to mention, McGilvery said, the lab will prove that the U of A is an academic destination for all-things geosciences.
“As an educator at the University of Arkansas, this is one of the best places in the nation to teach the geosciences because within 10 minutes of the department or just three hours away, we can show you almost every kind of sedimentary rock,” McGilvery said.
Liner and McGilvery complimented the department’s founding faculty and dedicated alumni base who have helped the department become what it is today, and who in turn helped the university capitalize on the geoscience potential throughout the state. Generous supporters have already contributed more than $75,000 to the GeoLab project thus far, Liner said.
The “story of Arkansas rock” is expected to debut in late 2023. The next year will include groundbreaking, construction, and continued fundraising to make the GeoLab become a reality at the U of A.
To learn more about the Department of Geosciences or to speak with its leadership about supporting the GeoLab, please visit geosciences.uark.edu.
You can also contact our development offices at 479-575-3712 or fulbright@uark.edu.