Flight of Fancy

As part of the Racine Parks and Recreation “Main Gallery” apprenticeship program, at-risk teens from area schools were selected to take part in a summer work program where they were paid to develop work habits while working with area artists in painting, sculpture, photography, furniture design, and dance.  Invited to Racine to teach sculpture as part of this summer program, Layne worked with the community through interviews, archival research and a community design workshop to spotlight locations for public artworks and to select the types of sculpture which would reflect the socio-cultural heritage of the community.  The results of this user-needs research culminated in the design and installation of a large public artwork which could be used as a model for future public artworks while transforming and revitalizing an existing underutilized downtown park into an active public center.

Artist concept drawings were used to encourage public involvement and to promote community support for the project.  Along with site analysis and including the goals realized through the community design workshop, the final design reflects a desire to integrate environmental education issues into the sculpture.  As part of the six-week work project, the apprentices were divided into four teams to facilitate the creation of this interactive public environmental sculpture.  Each team was responsible for final design, fabrication, and installation of one of the project segments: (1) earth, stone, brick and planting, (2) wooden structure, (3) metal structure, and (3) electrical and plumbing systems). Collectively the class produced and installed suspended wing forms and together with the other materials, transformed an old concrete pool into a representation of the history of Racine and its connection to the lakeshore environment.  The resulting landscape installation was illuminated for nighttime enjoyment and transformed the park into a place where young and old could congregate. 

This architectural landscape reflects Layne’s desire to involve the public in the design process and to engage young people in the revitalization of their communities while providing them with work experience and a sense of community ownership.  His continued research into the development of community environmental education programs and university courses is reflected in this project.  A number of talks, papers, and workshops relating to this project have been presented at professional conferences (copy of paper available upon request).  His responsibilities for this project included course outline, project description development, community participation programming, promotional rendering, detail construction drawing, and installation management.

Guided by Layne and lead by an on-site program mentor, student teams of four young people created each set of bird wings as part of the course program. Developed by the students during the design development stage, the innovative support structures employed aquatic animal shapes such as a fish pattern.  The student team that was responsible for the metal fabrication visited the fabrication company and became intimately involved in the process. Prior to the public opening, student apprentices inspected and approved the rocky outcrop shoreline segment, bridge structures, sound and light systems and the suspended bird wings sculptures.

Whether by day or night, a visitor walking over the arched wooden bridge passes through circular openings in the semi-transparent room partitions.  The movement coincides with five pairs of in-flight bird wings that together signify a bird taking off over the nearby lake.  Each environmental room reflects the different physical characteristics of the lakeshore environment, the participant’s progress along the path triggers a hidden light-activated sound-generator that plays the sounds of that particular shoreline setting.  The recordings were also made by the young artists.  Located in the center of town and adjacent to public transportation, Flight of Fancy became a go-to attractor during its installation.