‘Grand Canopy’, the name given to the large, white, swooping, shimmering portico, welcomes visitors to the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UCDavis.

But, more than welcome, on a clear day it creates myriads of ever-changing patterns and shadows on the ground and on the corrugated concrete walls; a textured delight of tonal variations; light playing games on the yellow vertical supports and piercing the tiny perforations of the aluminum/steel beams; an ever-changing theater of light choreographed by nature.