The story
Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore
The Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race, hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum since 1999, sends human-powered, amphibious art sculptures on a fifteen-mile course through downtown Baltimore each May, crossing pavement, sand, mud, and open harbor water. Modeled on a 1969 Ferndale, California original founded by artist Hobart Brown, it is billed as the East Coast Championship of the sport.
The kinetic sculpture race as an art form began in 1969 in Ferndale, California, when sculptor Hobart Brown modified his son's tricycle into a five-wheeled contraption he called the Pentacycle and was challenged to a race by a friend, an informal contest that grew into the annual Kinetic Grand Championship and inspired a small network of affiliated races across the country.