Are we the only art museum in the world building a playground? Maybe, maybe not, but hey, it started as a wild idea or serious joke (or both) and now kids play out there! We are still puzzled that it happened. I know that you know that it isn’t enough to just have an idea. It needed the thing itself—the Lozziwurm as invented in 1972 by Swiss artist and designer Yvan Pestalozzi. Which isn’t enough either.
It needed Lynn Zelevansky, our visionary director, and the great enthusiasm of Marilyn Russell, our chair and curator for education, and the generosity of Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, co-chairs of the Friends of the 2013 Carnegie International. But it needed even more than that, it needed the women and men on the ground, Rob Thompson of Terra Design Studio, the crew from Plantscape Inc. and from Technique Architectural Products, and Knoepfel Kunststoffe in Switzerland; it needed Carnegie Museum’s of Art John Lyon, Jeff Lovett, Hannah Silbert, Tony Young, and super MC of organization Sarah Minnaert. Still not enough though—because what’s a play sculpture without children? Well, they came, saw, and conquered it. Last Saturday, hundreds of them! And yes, this is part of The Playground Project of the 2013 Carnegie International opening on October 4, 5, and 6, 2013.
