Big news for SUNY Purchase students and community members! Purchase College has launched a walking meditation labyrinth to help students quiet the mind, ease anxieties, bring awareness, and find inspiration. The new labyrinth is located behind the college’s dance building in the grassy area behind the Native Pollinator Garden.
The First Labyrinth on a Westchester College Campus
The Purchase Labyrinth was made possible by funds from SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr.’s mental health initiatives. Although it’s not the first labyrinth in the county, it’s the first labyrinth on a Westchester college campus, joining other public labyrinths at Scarborough Church in Briarcliff Manor and Hitchcock Presbyterian Church in Scarsdale. The labyrinth’s opening celebration on October 22, 2025 featured a large crowd of community members, a speech by Purchase College’s new president Dr. Michael E. Steiper, live music, and a rock painting for a kindness garden.
“This beautiful space is another way we’re supporting our entire community and their needs for wellness. This is a place for our community to relax and restore at any point,” says Dr. Steiper.
View this post on Instagram
A Path for Everyone
The walking meditation labyrinth is free and open to students, faculty, and community members. Don’t let the name “labyrinth” fool you; this walking installation is not a maze. This installation inspired by the Chartres Cathedral in France is designed for visitors to practice mindfulness and experience spiritual, mental, emotional, and even metaphysical benefits.
It’s a continuous circuit that allows visitors to follow a single path and pause at the center before reversing. Visitors are not required to have specific experience or knowledge about the path. In many cultures, labyrinths have been used for centuries for ceremonial and spiritual purposes as a helpful technique to calm the breath and cultivate insight.
“The simple act of walking has the quality of grounding us. It has the quality of being here. My hope is that you don’t use the labyrinth as an escape but as a place to find clarity and that you can take that to wherever you may be,” says Joshua Lutz, associate professor in photography.
Purchase College (commonly referred to as SUNY Purchase) is located at 735 Anderson Road in Purchase.
