Rapper contributes funds to complete long-gestating land art piece in Arizona, having described the work as ‘life-changing’

Kanye West has donated $10m (£7.77m) to the creation of a major work of land art by James Turrell.

The money will fund the ongoing construction of Roden Crater in Arizona, which is described on the project’s website as “a controlled environment for the experiencing and contemplation of light”. The completed work will comprise a series of 21 viewing spaces connected by six tunnels, creating “a vast, naked eye observatory for celestial objects and events ranging from obscure and infrequent to the more familiar summer and winter solstice”.

Turrell is an American artist who works with light, often in the open air. He is known for his numerous Skyspace installations, where audiences contemplate a patch of sky as if it were a canvas. He has been working on the Roden Crater project since 1977, when he acquired the dormant volcano, and said he was thrilled by the donation.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Turrell near a model of his Roden Crater project. Photograph: Jim Bryant/AP

The site is managed by Arizona State University, which is working with the artist to raise $200m to complete the project.

West visited the crater in December, writing on Twitter: “This is life changing. We all will live in Turrell spaces.” He has long been a champion of the visual arts, commissioning artists such as George Condo and Takashi Murakami to design his album sleeves, and praising artists including Kerry James Marshall.

West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, announced on Monday that the couple are expecting their fourth child, to be born through a surrogate mother.