Overview

Designed by Thomas Jefferson to represent the “authority of nature and the power of reason,” the Rotunda is the physical and symbolic center of the University of Virginia, founded by Jefferson in 1824 as the first secular Liberal Arts university in America. Composer Judith Shatin and filmmaker Robert Arnold have created a portrait of the Rotunda that combines its timeless majesty with the ever-changing hum of daily life. Sounds and images recorded over the course of an entire year from season to season, are presented as a single day, from dawn to sunset.