In the 2024-2025 Academic year, environmental artist Stacy Levy installed a public art piece on Loyola University Maryland’s campus. Entitled Spiral Cafeteria, the work examines human impact on our natural environments, and particularly on our waterways. A meandering line of native plants finishes in a spiral around a storm drain, emphasizing the need to slow our run off, and find ways to bring our ecosystems more in line with the environment. Over time, the art piece will act as a buffer, filtering out toxins and plastics and preventing them from entering Stony Run, a tributary stream of Jones Falls. This project will also support native insects by providing them with food, which will in turn lead to birds consuming a wider proliferation of insects. Levy describes the work as “a living artwork for humans, birds, and insects. Future supplier of the birds’ lunch and the bees’ breakfast. And a place for students to find some time to walk up-close with nature.” Echoing forms found in both nature and in labyrinths, the piece invites a contemplation, and a slowing down that is further emphasized in its slowly changing form. On a college campus, this piece will grow with our community, maturing and changing with the seasons.

In March 2025, Spiral Cafeteria was installed near the volleyball courts in the Gardens. Over 80 volunteers – including students, faculty, and staff – assisted with the installation, which was dually supported by the Humanities Symposium and the Julio Fine Arts Gallery. The completed artwork is a spiral of native plants which surround a storm drain.