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Arthur R. Woods Print bio

Arthur R. Woods

Arthur R. Woods was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA in 1948. He studied psychology, art and literature at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. After graduation with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970 and completing U.S. military service in 1972, he began his art career in California in 1972 before moving to Switzerland in 1974 where he currently lives and works. He has dual Swiss and American citizenship and speaks English and German. He is married and has two children.
 
His involvement with space activities began over fifty-five years ago when he had the fortunate experience to personally witness the beginnings of the U.S. space program while living in the immediate vicinity of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center (1959 –1970). There he held summer jobs at the space center in 1967 & 1968 during the Apollo program.
 
Beginning in the mid-1980’s he initiated a number of art-in-space projects including:

  • The O.U.R.S. — Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite (1985)
  • The OUR-Space Peace Sculpture (OUR-SPS) (1988)
  • The Cosmic Dancer sculpture (1992–1993)
  • Ars Ad Astra — the 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit (1994–1995)
  • The SEEDS project (1995)
  • The Cosmic Stones (2004)
  • S.O.S. — Space Option Star (2013)
  • EarthSeeds (2013)
  • S.P.S. — Space Peace Star (2015)
A full-size (6m dia.) OUR-Space Peace Sculpture was built by NPO Energia in the U.S.S.R. in 1990. The Cosmic Dancer project (1993) and Ars Ad Astra: The 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit (1995) were realized on the Mir space station.
 
Arthur has been a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) since 1995 and has published and/or coauthored more than twenty-five papers primarily related to the cultural dimensions of Astronautics. He is a guest lecturer at the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France.
 
His work has been exhibited in a number of international space and art exhibitions including the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) (1995, 1997, 1998), Art Basel in (1987, 1988, 1989) All Design – Leben im schwerelosen Raum, Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich (2002), Abenteuer Raumfahrt. Aufbruch ins Weltall, Landes Baden-Württemberg im Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim (2006) Falling Without Fear, The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico (2012–13), Free Enterprise: The Art of Citizen Space Exploration, California Museum of Photography, UCR-University of California Riverside (2013), The Universe and Art, ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2017), and currently, Personal Structures exhibition organized by the Global Art Affairs Foundation in the context of the Venice Art Biennale until November 2017.
 
Read his LinkedIn profile and ResearchGate profile.

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