Altruistic Genius--Members-Only Preview: Student, Artist, Educator, Senior, Individual, Family/Dual levels, 5-7pm

Altruistic Genius: Buckminster Fuller’s Plans to Save the Planet seeks to bring the inventions and designs of R. Buckminster Fuller to Western North Carolina and introduce visitors to Fuller’s strategies for the sustainability of humans and the planet relating to housing, mathematics, transportation, and engineering. The Inventions portfolio, assembled in 1981 from Fuller’s career of explorations along with existent models, represent Fuller’s foresight. In the late 1970s, Fuller published a series of mathematical systems and philosophies to be used in solving problems in all areas of human existence in his Synergetics portfolio. Significant to Asheville, Fuller taught at Black Mountain College during the summers of 1948 and 1949. It was there that he importantly constructed his first geodesic dome as he experimented to develop more affordable housing.

Image: R. Buckminster Fuller, Building Construction/Geodesic Dome from the Inventions: Twelve Around One portfolio, 1981, screenprint in white ink on clear polyester film overlaid on a screenprint on Lennox paper, 25 × 35 1/2 inches. Asheville Art Museum, Black Mountain College Collection, Museum purchase with funds provided by 2006 Collectors' Circle members Rob Pulleyn and Cherry & Paul Lentz Saenger, 2006.31.64. © Estate of Buckminster Fuller, courtesy Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, image David Dietrich.