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Artist Keith Goodson Refreshes the Tower of Enlightenment

Keith Goodson painting the Tower of Enlightenment in 2006

Artist and SFSC alumnus Keith Goodson will be on the Highlands Campus on Wednesday, Feb. 26 to freshen up the Tower of Enlightenment—the artistic centerpiece of the campus that began its existence as a cylindrical cooling tower. The Tower is located between Building B, the SFSC Museum of Florida Art and Culture (MOFAC), and the Learning Resources Center (LRC). Everyone is encouraged to give Goodson a warm welcome and to chat with him as he paints.

For several years, the cooling tower had been covered with red tiles. After three hurricanes which hit Highlands County at the rate of one a month in 2004, roughly one-third of the tiles were destroyed. A decision was made to paint the cooling tower white rather than replace the tiles. It then became the canvas for the artistic work we know today.

In late 2006, Goodson began work on painting the Tower of Enlightenment. It was commissioned by Dr. Norm Stephens, then SFSC president, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of SFSC. The Tower was officially dedicated in a ceremony on March 27, 2007.

Goodson was the perfect choice for the job as he had created many of the murals seen around Lake Placid. But the Tower was a particular challenge for Goodson, as he’d never created a mural covering a continuous wall around a circular tower. Goodson, by the way, also designed the College’s current seal.

Goodson combined abstract and realistic images to present a message about SFSC’s mission and purpose in fostering and inspiring humanity’s creativity and eternal quest for knowledge.

Tower of Enlightenment

The mural reflects the SFSC educational experience in three panels: “Embracing the Earth,” “Codes of Life,” and “Understanding the Universe.” The first panel, “Embracing the Earth,” features an orange globe that was the symbol of SFSC at the time. The second panel, “Codes of Life,” depicts the language of life, identity, and culture in symbols representing the disciplines that make up the College experience. The third panel, “Understand­­ing the Universe,” depicts a pair of bronze panthers balancing an armillary sphere, an astronomical instrument used to explain the motions of the stars and planets and long considered to be a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. The College’s core institutional values are also embedded within the images as “ISCLEAR”: “Integrity,” “Service,” “Community,” “Learning,” “Excellence,” “Accountability,” and “Responsibility.”

Goodson said, “The mural is a depiction of my interpretation of the pursuit for wisdom and truth. We are always on a journey of discovery. It is in our nature to look beyond what we can see and strive for the substance of things unseen. Such is faith—faith to know that we are a part of something far greater than we can comprehend or imagine.”