This year CultureWorks is bringing two collaborative art pieces to the annual celebration of flowers and fried food.
Every April in Holland, Michigan there is a question that lingers in the air: will the Tulips bloom during Tulip Time? Even those of us who weren’t around for the apocryphal “Stem Fest” know that the festival and the fields of color don’t always sync their calendars, especially when the month of March decides to host a week of near-70s temperatures.
This year CultureWorks has made some evergreen pieces to ensure that everyone will see some blooms while they’re in town, whether the weather cooperates or not!
With the help of a team of makers and engineers from Steelcase and DISHER, CultureWorks is building a sculpture entitled “The Tulip Factory” which will be installed in Centennial Park for the duration of Tulip Time. The sculpture is made with recycled material, with a special emphasis on bike components per this year’s festival theme. Viewers can turn bike wheels to make the tulips on the sculpture move, and a central tulip will bloom in the wind. The sculpture also features solar-powered elements so that Tulip Time guests can still see tulips after dark.
When we’re not thinking about the intersection of engineering and art, and asking our friends to help us build complicated sculptures, we’re thinking about bugs. (While they might give you the creepy-crawlies, they’re also very cool!) When Tulip Time reached out to us about painting a photo backdrop for Pedals in the Park our thoughts quickly went to giant tulips. It turns out a new perspective is a side effect of bugs on the brain, and we hope you’ll come find out what it’s like to look up to the tulips!
Pedals in the Park is a family-oriented event hosted by Velo Kids and Tulip Time at Kollen Park from 1-3 PM on May 5. Holland Area Arts Council will run a bicycle decoration station, and Maranda from Wood TV8 will be there to give awards to the best bikes! People can then pose with their bikes in front of the giant tulip backdrop and finally get a chance to experience what it’s like to be a tiny creature in a tulip field.
