Dividing the Light, Installation artwork at Pomona College, Claremont, US

Dividing the Light is an artwork made of granite and steel featuring an open canopy that frames the sky and draws your gaze upward. Beneath it sit granite benches and a black reflective pool that catches and mirrors the changing light throughout the day.

James Turrell, a 1965 Pomona College graduate, was asked by the college to create an installation for the Draper Courtyard while it was designing Lincoln and Edmunds halls. Completed in 2007, Dividing the Light was his first public installation in Southern California and cost US$2.26 million, built with Marmol Radziner and Amazing Steel. It underwent maintenance in 2018.

The work shows how light itself can become a medium for artistic expression and changes how we see the space around us. Visitors experience how natural and artificial light mix together throughout the day, transforming the feeling of the place.

The courtyard sits between Lincoln Hall and Edmunds Hall and is open to walk through; red granite benches line the space for sitting. Wading in the black granite pool has been prohibited since about 2009, so stay on the paving. The canopy's light shows run hourly from sunset to sunrise, with longer sequences at sunrise and sunset.

The LED lights embedded beneath the canopy shift through different colors each hour between sunset and sunrise, creating an ever-changing display. This automatic system operates every night, so each visit offers a different color experience.