Chaco Culture National Historic Park serves as inspiration for many visitors throughout the year. Here in Tucson we find a unique public art installation that is directly connected to the solar alignments found at Chaco Canyon.

It can be said that Tucson has an intimate connection with the Sun: it has shaped our city’s development in the past, and now promises to play an important role in the future. Along the Rillito River Park, there is a public art installation that pays homage to the sun, and the relationship that it has had with cultures of the Southwest. Chris Tanz is one of the artists responsible for this interactive art-space and she says that she hopes it will allow visitors to connect with the seasonal patterns of the sun. "We’re rather detached from these patterns," she points out, "and we don’t depend on them the way people use to. We see a few sun rises, a few sun sets, but we don’t make the observations."

For Tanz, the inspiration for this Sun Circle came from a visit to one of our National Parks. Chaco Culture National Park is located in New Mexico, near the four corners area, and has many examples of how the Chacoan People incorporated astronomical observations into the architecture.

Chaco Canyon is considered the epicenter of an advanced culture that flourished between 850 and 1250 AD, and today it attracts the attention of visitors and scholars from around the world. Gwinn Vivian is an archaeologist, and he has devoted much of his life to studying Chacoan culture. He points out that mapping the movement of the sun, and incorporating it into the sophisticated architecture of these structures was important for the society as a whole. "Originally people thought it was related to planting cycles, now we think it’s probably more ceremonial in nature," Vivian says.

For visitors to Chaco Culture Historic National Park, the opportunity to see how an ancient civilization connected with the movement of the sun can inspire wonder. It also shows the important role that a national park has within our society, and how it can serve to inspire modern expressions of art as well.

Luis Carrión reports.

Time-lapse footage of Sun Circle courtesy of Wes Holden