Park City Public Art Board's Favorite Local Pieces // Kinetic Sculpture at the Park City MARC

Each month we feature a Park City Public Art Board Member’s favorite local art piece, and this month we heard from Beth Armstrong who chose this unique kinetic sculpture suspended from the rafters at the Park City MARC. See what she has to say about the piece and then head over to the MARC and experience it for yourself.

This unique sculpture has whirling balls, racquets, skis, gears, and gravity drops. When an RFP went out a couple of years ago for artwork to add to the facility, the specifications were that it encapsulate Park City values promoting a sense of play, community, and discovery.

The sculpture was created by Mike Wong, PCCAPS (Park City Center for Advanced Professional Studies) volunteer mentor, Park City High School graduate (’96), and an industrial engineer by profession. He submitted the winning design to the City, with a plan to engage and empower the PCCAPS students to create a tantalizing, community-based project. The students determined that the public art piece should emphasize athletics, outdoor recreation, community collaboration, use of technology, and recycled materials.

The PCCAPS engineering students designed and built a working scale model in the classroom, which was then converted into a computer-based 3-D model. From this, exact measurements and a parts list were determined which sent the students scavenging at Recycle Utah for reusable bicycles, skis, snowboards, racquets, hardware, and poles. Digital Media students, under the direction of Debra Corrigan, advised on the color palette for the sculpture, directing Fine Arts students in their efforts to paint, design, and decorate the parts that make up the whole piece.

Beth Armstrong, PAAB member, admits at first she wasn’t so sure about the piece, but it eventually grew on her.

“I was skeptical about this project from the beginning and throughout the process it grew on me, until at long last it was finished! I now happily walk into the MARC and see people hard at working cranking the wheel to lift the balls to watch them happily travel down to their final destination! I love that this project challenged our minds, involved our children and tested our resilience. Celebrate the human, the marks people make on the world. Treasure the local, the small-scale, the eccentric, the ordinary: whatever is made out of caring. Respect what people have built for themselves, and others. Find the beauty in some battered old porch or cluttered, human-scale storefront, while it still stands. If it touches us in any way, it's art.”

Wonderful insight on this Park City public art piece. Check it out for yourself at the PC MARC at 1200 Little Kate Road. And stay tuned for more Park City public art favorites in the coming months!