Keith House with its 10 foot wrap around porch and warm wood canopy appears to be a quintessential Texas ranch house. (Photo by Courtney Dabney)
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The Skyspace dome is bathed in light during a viewing of Come to Good by James Turrell. (Photo by Courtney Dabney)
Source:One of artist James Turrell’s Skyspace installations is now located in Fort Worth. Keith House is perched on a property near the Trinity River, at The Heart of The Ranch in the Clearfork development. Come to Good officially opened to the public on February 8, 2025. You can book private events on-site or choose a time slot for one of the regular viewings, which take place at either sunrise or sunset.
Fort Worth’s first Turrell installation is his 99th Skyspace, but it’s something of a rarity in his vast lexicon, in that it’s one of only three that Turrell conceived as a Quaker-style meeting house. You’ll find One Accord at the Live Oak Meeting House in Houston, and another located in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, where his Greet the Light is at the Chestnut Hill Meeting House.
The artist is a Quaker, and while Fort Worth’s Skyspace is the only one of the three that is not affiliated with a local Society of Friends (what Quakers call their congregations), it will act as a peaceful space to host all types of gatherings.
James Turrell’s artwork in Fort Worth is titled Come To Good. Turrell named it after one of his favorite Quaker meeting houses, which is located in Cornwall, England ― a tranquil thatched-roof, lime-washed structure, dating from 1710. By comparison, Fort Worth’s version, located at 4814 Edwards Ranch Road, is the picture of a Texas ranch house in style, with its wrap-around 10-foot wide porch, topped by metal beams supporting a warm wooden canopy.
Known as Keith House, it was conceived as a gift to the entire Fort Worth community. The foundation that commissioned it was established by the late Meta Alice Keith Bratten, who transformed a modest inheritance from her great uncle, Ben E. Keith (founder of Fort Worth’s notable food and beverage distributorship) into a substantial philanthropic endeavor.
Her daughter, Adelaide Leavens, serves as president of the foundation, continuing the legacy with its involvement in nature, art, and education. Keith House was her vision, and she established a non-profit, called Entrada of Texas, DBA Keith House, which is its owner. Janelle Montgomery serves as the Director of Keith House.
“Janelle is such a gift to us,” Adelaide Leavens tells Fort Worth Digital Diary. “With her business background and passion for art, we get to utilize both sides of her brain in this role.”
Interestingly, the building’s facade is constructed of Texas limestone blocks, which were repurposed from a Keith-family home in Wichita Falls.
“I inherited a family ranch,” Leavens says. “It burned in 1976, and only the ruins remained from the home, which was built in 1939. We harvested that limestone and reused it here. A stonemason in San Antonio deconstructed the ranch house and formed the pieces we needed for the exterior.”
The 3,200-square-foot structure makes the most of its two-acre setting. The grounds are shaded by mature oak trees and planted with native species. Leavens, who was also a former Executive Director of Streams and Valleys, remains invested in Fort Worth’s Trail System, championing greater access to the Trinity River, and says that plans are to “eventually connect Keith House with the trail.”
Among the gatherings that she expects the facility to host are community meetings, performances, conversations, and other private events.
“It has been our hope and dream to host meetings here, even ones that could otherwise be contentious,” she says. “The space instantly calms you, and the seating [in pews on all four sides] allows for attendees to look each other in the eye.” That changes the dynamic of any conversation.
Before Come to Good at Keith House was officially commissioned by James Turrell on November 10, 2024, the space hosted more than 30 local non-profits.
“We’ve discovered the acoustics in the space are spectacular as well,” Leavens says. So far, she’s witnessed both piano and classical guitar performances there and says, “Music inside the space is breathtaking.”
Turrell’s Skyspace artworks draw your attention to light as a presence all its own, rather than as an incidental source of illumination of other objects. When considering Come To Good during the nearly 40-minute viewings, the light is the star.
Seated in the pews, your gaze is immediately drawn upward to the sharp, chisel-edged, 8-foot-by-8-foot square aperture at the center of the ceiling ― the open roof reveals nothing but open sky above you. It’s not a parlor trick; that’s really the sky, with the occasional cloud or bird passing overhead to prove it. Turrell forces you to focus on it, and hopes you’ll find peace in the play of light.
As dawn illuminates a new day, or dusk fades to darkness, visitors sit (or lie on empty benches, some with pillows) to enjoy a fascinating play between the sky, visible through the open roof, and colored lighting sequences gently washing over the Skyspace dome. It slowly moves from blue to purple and from pink to green. Every change of hue inside the dome, as well as the changes naturally occurring in the sky above, reflects something otherworldly.
I won’t be a spoiler. You need to experience it for yourself. Let’s just say that the aperture takes on unusual and unexpected tones.
It’s a peaceful experience, much like the last five minutes of a yoga class, when your mind is set free and encouraged to wander. And, in our hectic, technologically fueled urban existence, that is a very rare thing indeed.
Come to Good at Keith House is more than an artwork to view and then walk away. It’s the gift of an experience with nature in a communal space, and a gentle reminder to stop and look up.
This article can also be found in print inside the fourth issue of Artsy Scoop Magazine, which shines a spotlight on the city’s vibrant arts and culture scene. It is published by local artist Mouty Shackelford. Find her at www.artsyscoop.com; on Instagram @artsyscoop; on Facebook @artsyscoopmedia, or email her at [email protected].
