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Marnie Muller, MLA, has extensively studied the ancient geometry tradition with Keith Critchlow, Randall Carlson, Robert L. Powell, Sr. and other key teachers and colleagues. She specializes in sharing “hands-on”, experiential principles of geometry with participants of all ages. In particular, she enjoys designing and constructing large, life-size geometric forms for exploring the beauty, grace, and kinesthetic awareness of moving within these powerful forms, both indoors and outdoors.
She has worked as research associate at the Foundation for Mind Research, as Project Director of Art/Environment at the Savannah Science Museum, as a Math-Science Teacher, and as an editor and as an author. Her UNCA Masters thesis is entitled The Classical Seven-Circuit Labyrinth as Transcultural Phenomenon. Presently she is Director of The Universe Story Journey and is a founding member of the Earth Voyage Team which focuses on developing and presenting interdisciplinary, inter-generational programs on a giant, geometric Dymaxion map projection of the world designed by R. Buckminster Fuller.
For the Black Mountain College Museum & Art Center’s exhibit, Ideas + Inventions: Buckminster Fuller and Black Mountain College/Exploring the genius of R. Buckminster Fuller in 2005, Marnie designed, constructed and installed a range of 3-D geometric forms based on Fuller’s work. In addition, she designed and conducted an experiential, inter-generational workshop, Great Circles + Spaceship Earth which included hands-on construction of geometric forms. She also coordinated a benefit concert by cellist, Michael Fitzpatrick as a tribute to Fuller, Music from the Dymaxion Dimension.
Her cosmological studies focus on the Story of our Universe and its time-developmental process…with the inquiry: “How best do humans participate in the sacred community of the Universe”? As Project Director of The Universe Story Journey, she encourages others in their own inquiry process. Inspired by Thomas Berry, the Universe Story Journey is a large, permanent outdoor museum quality exhibit which she co-designed, developed and directed its installation as a 60-foot wide spiral timescale Walk in the woods on the hundred acre-plus campus of a private, international high school. On the spiral path which winds back to the Origin of the Universe, every 36 feet equals approximately one billion years. Along the way, one experiences large timescale stations with NASA color images portraying key “moments” in the story of the emergent Universe. Marnie also designs and teaches original curricula for the site including Ancient and Contemporary Cosmologies & Creation Myths from around the World; Exploring the Biological Kingdoms and their Place in the Universe Story; Origin of the Chemical Elements of the Periodic Table; and the Living Geometries of Nature. Recently her schedule included teaching a 5-day Course at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching to teachers from around the state in which she designed a “DaVinci-Style” Studio space where teachers in that residential-retreat setting could come and work/play with “hands-on” materials to explore geometry in a new light.
Marnie Muller has a B. A., Cum Laude, in Philosophy with Interdisciplinary Studies from Marymount College, Tarrytown, New York and an MLA from The University of North Carolina, Asheville. For over 20 years Marnie has studied and worked with the renowned cultural historian Thomas Berry, author of The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story, and other works and has collaborated with educators from the US and Canada to develop innovative, experiential learning models for sharing his work with broad communities. Her UNCA Masters thesis and continued research is on the Classical Seven-Circuit Labyrinth geometric pattern. Her kinesthetic Wisdom studies include Choreocosmic Eurythmy, Continuum, Contact Improv, Tai Chi, and Primordial Chi Kung.
In the 70’s, Marnie worked with the Savannah Science Museum in Savannah, Georgia as Project Coordinator of the Art/Environment Awareness Project in collaboration with the Telfair Academy of the Arts & Sciences. She also designed and taught environmental education classes, conducted experiential nature walks for teachers and hundreds of students, and collaborated in planning the conversion of the Museum from a “behind glass”museum to a “hands-on” museum (Boston Children’s Museum/SF Exploratorium style ). She also helped design and create the Resource Center Library on Sustainability and Environmental Education and authored the regional environmental education handbook: Let the Environment Become Your Classroom for The Coastal Office of the Georgia Conservancy, Savannah, GA. Her experience as an educator includes developing and teaching original, hands-on curriculum in Science and Mathematics.
From 1983 to 1992 she was co-founder/editor and contributor for Katuah: Bioregional Journal for the Southern Appalachians, which focused on preserving the cultural and ecological diversity of the Southern Appalachians. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Appalachian Consortium, dedicated to celebrating and preserving the ecological and cultural heritage of Southern Appalachia.
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