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Forget over the rainbow. Here in the hills of Northern New Mexico, you can get inside one. Giant prisms in the walls and apses project a natural light show at the the Dwan Light Sanctuary (that’s Dwan, like its creator, not a misspelling of dawn, like the morning), a cylindrical and completely unadorned building located on the campus of United World College in Montezuma, northwest of Las Vegas. Its clean white walls are decorated only by light refractions.
"It is a place of quiet and beauty where students can go to meditate, to play music, to do yoga. Those are the main things. It is a retreat that students and anyone else can access," says Jonathan Ehrlich, vice president of finance and operations at the school.
Aside from being a pretty spectacular site, he says, the light sanctuary functions as a space for non-denominational worship its students, who hail from more than 70 different countries.
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"It seems to be about its place on the hill engaging with the sunlight in New Mexico, which is a near constant. The point is to sort of connect you to the seasons and to the trajectory of the sun," says Sam Gilbert, a lifelong New Mexican and freelance journalist who recently visited.
It may be referred to as a temple, a sanctuary or a church, but the vibe this place gives off is art-installation-esque. And since it is the conceptual baby of Virginia Dwan, patron of budding artists in the '60s and champion of the avant-garde, that feeling makes sense.
The mother of the light sanctuary had long been influential in the art world when she completed the sanctuary in 1996. As the daughter of a mining mogul with an estate worth over $22 million, Dwan had the resources to overcome almost any hurdle. She owned galleries in both Los Angeles and New York City, from 1959 to 1972. Her relationship with artist Yves Klein was integral to the popularity of French postwar avant-garde art, and her gallery in Los Angeles is known as one of the first venues for pop art.
The prominent mover and shaker of the 1960s art scene purchased property in New Mexico in the late '90s and had a vision. And, with the help of Santa Fe architect Laban Wingert and light-inspired artist Charles Ross, Dwan made that vision a reality in the light sanctuary.
In March of 2015, the sanctuary reopened after being closed for repair to rectify damage caused by a severe storm the year before. And vistors are welcome daily.
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Its architecture promotes billowing acoustics that help it double as a concert hall. Gilbert says it reminds him of an observatory, "because the windows sort of connect and move upwards. It's almost as if it's a star-gazing space."
The circular floor of the sanctuary is divided by metallic lines into 12 pie-shaped pieces, which pull attention to the light's movement across it. "Everyone lies down as soon as they get in there. Something draws you to the ground, and that's the canvas for the light show," Gilbert says.
In a 45-minute period on a sunny spring afternoon, the rainbows move up the walls as the sun rises in the sky like a sundial, with a splash of psychedelic color. Rainbows bend the corners of the china-white benches, and you can almost touch them. Glowing, they saturate your mood. Sitting on a smooth white bench, bathed in indigo light, you feel very much in a temple. And it's the perfect spot for a selfie.
Dwan Light Sanctuary
Open daily from 6 am to 8 pm. Free
United World College-USA,
Hwy. 65, Montezuma
454-4260
Santa Fe Reporter