SPACES Archives

05/07/2026

📢 New blog alert!

What happens when an art environment disappears—but its story refuses to fade? "The Ghosts of Melrose Ave" by Jennifer Jameson Merchant explores the legacy of Milt Hopkins’ once-enchanted Castle of Enchantment through a new short film by Weston Lyon and Karolina Lavergne. Blurring fact and fiction, the filmmakers trace memory, myth, and the afterlife of creative work on a now-empty Los Angeles lot.

Dive into the interview and discover how this lost castle still inspires new worlds:
https://ow.ly/Ajjw50YWevy.

Photo: Seymour Rosen, 1969. ©SPACES—Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments.

04/07/2026

Pearl Fryar, creator of the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden in Bishopville, South Carolina, passed away on April 4th at the age of 86.

Fryar was renowned for nurturing castoff plants into abstract living sculptures that populated a three-acre garden at his home. This decades-long project first began with his determined pursuit of the designation “Garden of the Month” after white locals barred his family’s purchase of another property in town due to the prejudicial concern they would “not keep up the yard.” The Garden is now managed by the nonprofit Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, Inc., and welcomes visitors from around the world.

Photo: Kelly Ludwig, 2005. SPACES Archives Collection at John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

02/10/2026

An update from SPACES:

We are currently settling into our new home at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center where the work of documenting, sharing, and honoring artist-built environments, that began with Seymour Rosen and was carried on by Kohler Foundation until it was recently gifted to JMKAC, will continue.
 
SPACES is housed at the Art Preserve in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and the archives are available to the public by appointment. We invite you to explore and look forward to continuing to serve as a vital resource for these remarkable sites and their creators.

📸: Sabato Rodia’s Watts Towers (site detail), Seymour Rosen, n.d.

12/10/2025

A recent feature on François Décure's carvings in the Paris Catacombs:

Sculptor François Décure met his demise trying to make his artwork in the Paris Catacombs accessible to the public above.

09/02/2025

In the quiet Durham neighborhood of Northgate Park sits the unsuspecting home of Gene Dillard. Gene moved to North Carolina in the 1980s and began to transform his house in the early 2000s. Beginning with yard sculptures, Gene soon moved to the walls of his home and mosaiced them with mirror shards, glass pebbles, and pottery. His self-proclaimed obsessive personality is evident in the careful placement of every adornment from his mailbox to his valances.

spacesarchives.org/explore/search-the-online-collection/gene-dillard-house/

Photos: Steve Plattner

08/27/2025

Gregangelo Hererra didn't set out to build a space filled with the works of dozens of artists from the City by the Bay — it was a byproduct of his tireless effort to contribute to the SF art scene and the community he built along the way. In this interview with Hererra and Heather Samuels of the SF Planning Department, we learn about the process behind designating SF Landmark #318.

https://spacesarchives.org/resources/blog/sf-landmark-318/

08/22/2025

Don't miss this exhibition that features Seymour Rosen's photography!

07/31/2025

Learn more about the Brunel Sculpture Garden on August 16th!

What's the deal with those concrete totem poles and sculptures on the hill overlooking Route 28 near Bread Alone in Boiceville? Did FDR and Eleanor really visit this place? Who was Madame Wellington Koo? What famous poets, architects, and artists summered at Le Chalet between the Wars? Who invented one hour photo processing?
For answers to these questions and more, join Cynthia Nikitin, Co-Founder/Trustee of the Friends of Brunel Park on August 16th at 11:30 am for a lively presentation at the historic Bevier House and headquarters of the Ulster County Historical Society. Optional on -site tour of Brunel Park to follow at 2 pm.
This event is free, but seating is limited—please reserve your spot in advance here:
https://ulstercountyhs.org/event/the-man-the-land-the-art-of-emile-brunel-1874-1944/
Location: Ulster County Historical Society
2682 U.S. 209 Kingston, New York 12401

07/28/2025

A Mary Proctor exhibition is coming up at the American Visionary Art Museum!

"I want people to gather up what Mary brought to the world and that's joy, hope, love and peace." — Mary Proctor "When I create, I feel like a butterfly." — Mary Proctor The Strength to Be Joyful is a visionary art exhibition celebrating the life, spirit, and creative journey of Mary Proctor. Ra...

07/17/2025

📢New blog alert! Art environment scholar and former SPACES Archives Fellow Gabrielle Christiansen sends us a dispatch from the recent reopening of the World’s Folk Art Church at Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden!

https://spacesarchives.org/resources/blog/it-will-belong-to-the-whole-population-of-earth-the-re-opening-of-the-worlds-folk-art-church-at-howard-finsters-paradise-garden/

📸: The exterior of the World’s Folk Art Church at Paradise Garden. Gabrielle Christiansen, 2025.

07/16/2025

This Sunday!