The City of Ocala Cultural Arts and Sciences Division has announced that three new public art pieces have been installed at the Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place.
These art installations include Tectum Panels©, a suspension piece within the interior of the center, and an interactive piece on the exterior of the building.
Local artist Chance Miller prepared the first art piece, Tectum Panels, which was designed for the gymnasium. Miller was a participant in the annual Student and Emerging Artist Competition hosted by the City of Ocala and the Magnolia Art Xchange (MAX).
The panels feature a dynamic interworking of colors while providing sound absorption in the community center’s double gymnasium.
The second art piece, Renewal, was fabricated by artist Virginia Kistler, and it was made of varia and painted stainless steel spheres. The artwork, which is approximately 17 feet tall by 10 feet wide, is suspended in the atrium between the first and second floors.
“The inspiration for my proposed sculpture comes from the movement of people engaging in athletic activity and everyday life,” says Kistler. “The piece is inspired by motion captured imaging or chrono-photography. Suggestive of movement ‘frozen’ in time, the sculpture is meant to convey action and energy, without suggesting a specific activity or movement.”
The third interactive art piece, known as Elements -sea-, is located on the exterior of the building. This piece, which was a collaborative project with international artists Aaron Sherwood and Kiori Kawai, local artist and fabricator Mike Zeak, and Florida artist Cosby Hayes, aims to introduce the participant to the interaction of touch, sound, and light while providing a beautiful interactive public art piece for spectators to enjoy.
Elements -sea- is an interactive installation with 105 spheres that generate sound and light when touched. The spheres were fabricated using acrylic globes covered with silicone, and each globe contains an LED light and a speaker.
When a sphere is touched, it generates a unique sound and lights up. The mechanical casing is custom fabricated aluminum and painted with a combination of powder-coating and spray paint.
The Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place is located at 1821 NW 21st Avenue in Ocala, and it will be open to the public following the ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, January 10 at 11 a.m.
The hours of operation for the community center will be Monday through Friday (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.), Saturday (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), and Sunday (12 p.m. to 5 p.m.).
For more information, contact the City of Ocala Cultural Arts and Sciences Division via phone (352-629-8447) or email (artinfo@ocalafl.org); or visit the City of Ocala’s Cultural Arts webpage.