[ The OURS Foundation ] [ Arthur Woods ]

ARTHUR WOODS personally witnessed the beginnings of the US space program during his youth . He had the fortunate experience to live in Merritt Island, Florida (1959-1970) which is near to Cape Canaveral and where the Kennedy Space Center is located at its northern part. As a university student, he worked two summers at the US space center during the exciting Apollo program.

After completing his university studies in art and psychology at Mercer, University in Macon, Georgia, USA in 1970, he began his art career in California before moving to Switzerland in 1973. This important early personal experience led him to maintain an active interest in the latest scientific and technological developments associated with space development - experiences which he later integrated into his art. Europe provided a deep cultural context for his artistic development.

For over thirty-five years Woods has created a variety of artistic expressions utilizing an unique pointillistic painting technique inspired by a description of the microcosmos found in contemporary physics. His work has moved through a series of abstract works to an impressionistic form of hyper-realism. The latter was developed into an art of the macrocosmos in series of paintings about the Earth - our home planet seen from its surface and from the perspective of space.

His most innovative and publicized art activities have been the actual introduction of art into the world's space programs and into the environment of outer space. Since 1984 he has initiated and developed a series of art-in-space projects which were designed to place large sculptures in Earth orbit. These projects were often publicized in the world's media.

On May 22, 1993, the Cosmic Dancer Sculpture was the first of his artworks to be launched into space. Sent to the Russian Mir space station to investigate the properties of sculpture in weightlessness, the Cosmic Dancer Sculpture is the first three dimensional artwork purposely designed for and officially integrated into a human habitat beyond Earth.

In September 1995, in a cooperation between the OURS Foundation and the European Space Agency (ESA), he managed the organization and launch of "Ars ad Astra: The 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit" also on the Mir space station as a part of the EuroMir95 mission. This project was designed to open the door to space to artists from around the world.

In 1990 he founded the OURS Foundation, a non-profit cultural and astronautical organization based in Switzerland which is dedicated to the establishment of a cultural dimension within humanity's space endeavors. Besides organizing spaceart events both on and off Earth, the OURS Foundation has been actively developing and elaborating a concept called The Space Option. This concept proposes the large scale utilization of the infinite resources of space to meet the growing needs of humanity on Earth as the most optimistic path to humanity's future well being.

For his pioneering work and active engagement in the astronautical field he was elected to the International Academy of Astronautics in 1995 where he has served as chairman of its sub-committee on the Arts and Literature and has helped organize various symposia, workshops and studies. He is also a Fellow (FIAAA) of the International Association of Astronomical Artists and a guest lecturer at the International Space University.

Since 1995, Arthur Woods has been active on the Internet. In 1996 he initiated the Swissart Network - www.swissart.net - which is currently the largest and most frequented website dedicated to the contemporary arts in Switzerland. In 1998 this activity became incorporated into the Swissart GmbH.

In 2003, together with Patrick Gyger, he co-founded a new space company called spaceOp Sàrl based in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.

He is a co-organizer and webmaster of the ITSF - Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications developed in cooperation with the European Space Agency, the Maison d'Ailleurs and the OURS Foundation. Together with Leonardo/Olats he is the co-organizer of "Spacearts - the Space Art Database" project.

Arthur Woods the editor of ars astronautica - this website which is dedicated to the promotion of the astronautical arts.

1996-2005 © The OURS Foundation