The Sculpture Racing Family

In progress (1/12/18)

People’s Sculpture Racing’s larger community–and thank you list–includes:

Geoff Koetsch, co-founder of the World Sculpture Racing Society (WSRS), who early bestowed upon us his blessing, sculpture racing recipe book, and gorgeous photographs from the early races; and others from the WSRS, who continue to lend their support–including Arthur Ganson, John Weidman, and Clara Wainwright (the late Bill Wainwright’s spouse). Geoff is an active artist now in Lowell. Thanks also to Geoff’s co-founder Kirby Scudder, an active artist in Santa Cruz.

Our major partner, The Cambridge Arts Council (CAC), with its generous staff, especially Executive Director Jason Weeks and Director of Community Arts Julie Barry, and also Director of Public Art Lillian Hsu and Marketing & PR Director Greg Cook. The CAC has been instrumental in making PSR possible, by including us in sculpture racing’s traditional venue, the Cambridge Arts River Festival, and promoting us as part of the festival; by acting as PSR’s fiscal umbrella and making it possible for PSR to solicit tax-refundable donations; by selecting us for a Massachusetts Cultural Council Local Community Council Arts Access Grant; and for endorsing us for a New England Foundation for the Arts Public Art grant. The cheery cherry on top has been the Council and Jason’s continual moral support and welcome advisement.

Parts and Crafts of Somerville which with PSR Chief Engineer Jeff DelPapa, has hosted free sculpture building workshops, and whose artists and children and built marvelous racing sculptures.

The MIT Museum, which gave PSR a big boost in its inaugural year, 2015, by hosting a Sculpture Racing Exhibition and Circumambulation of the Museum by Prototypes. Arthur Ganson kindly made the connection for us with the Museum. This was part of the Cambridge Science Festival, which is organized by the Museum. PSR has continued to participate in the Science Festival, both in its yearly carnival and by organizing the Community Sculpture Race at Danehy Park. Both events take place in April. Deborah Douglas, the Museum’s Director of Collections and Curator, Science & Technology has been a special support. Douglas and PSR organized the Museum’s accessioning of one of Bill Wainwright’s sculpture racing wheels, a gift by Lionel Spiro. Douglas was also a juror in PSR 2017 People’s Sculpture Race.

Event & Design Volunteers include Emmalee Todd; photographer Tye Martin; designer Caleb Martin; Chris and Scott Kyle; David Eggers; Emily Bridgham and Nicholas Herold; Ian Herold, Katherine Herold, Jan Jones, Anne Jekka, James Herold and Friends; Douglas Hayden….

The Rockland People’s Sculpture Race, founded by PSR Advisory Board Member Kim Bernard in 2017, is an offspring of PSR (and hence a grandchild of WSRS). Their inaugural race was a delight. Kim also led a middle school sculpture racing project in Rockland.

Our Advisory Board, whose members continue to support and endorse us.

Our donors: Lionel Spiro; Kirsten Meisinger, MD; the Edward Bernays Family Foundation; the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the New England Foundation for the Arts.

And most important, our racers — sorry, in progress!!!

2015 – MIT Museum Exhibition & Circumambulation:
2015 – People’s Race (River Festival): Bill Wainwright’s “Wheel #2”; Mitch Ryerson’s “Leonardo Flying Machine”; Bill Turville’s “Big Fish” and “Fish”; Jay Havighurst’s
2016 – Community Race (Science Festival, Danehy Park):
2016 – People’s Race:
2017 – Community Race:
2017 – People’s Race:

And, not to forget our cousins!

The Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race, founded in 2016, is an offspring of a cousin genre, kinetic sculpture racing. The original KSR project was founded by Hobart Brown in California and has spread around the country, including Baltimore and Philadelphia. This beautiful genre differs from our project in a few respects: KSR designs face the engineering challenges of traversing water, mud, and sand; the extended KSR event is episodic, where each episode is based on an engineering obstacle; and it is required that racers’ feet not touch the ground. WSRS’ founders, whose participants were professional artists, did not know of the KSR genre.

We Thank You!

People’s Sculpture Racing Team

  • Rory Beerits
  • Jeff DelPapa
  • Jay Havighurst
  • Andrew Held
  • Christian Herold
  • Rock Louis
  • Daniel Rosenberg
  • Scott Ruescher
  • Dennis Svoronos
  • T.T. Svoronos
  • William Turville