Goldwell Open Air Museum facts for kids
The Red Barn sits amid the Bullfrog ruins at the base of Bonanza Mountain
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| Established | 2000 |
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| Location | near Rhyolite, Nevada |
| Type | Outdoor sculpture park and artists' workspace |
The Goldwell Open Air Museum is an amazing outdoor art park in Nevada. It's located near a ghost town called Rhyolite. This special place covers about 7.8 acres. It's like a giant outdoor gallery where you can see unique sculptures.
The museum is about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It's also only about 4 miles west of Beatty. If you travel a bit further west, you'll reach Death Valley National Park. Besides the outdoor sculptures, there's also the Red Barn Art Center. This building is a studio and exhibition space. Artists can live and work there, creating new art. Near the Red Barn, you can see old ruins. These are from the historic mining town of Bullfrog, including an old jail.
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Discovering the Goldwell Open Air Museum
The Goldwell Open Air Museum is a unique place. It combines art with the wide-open desert landscape. It's a great spot to explore and see art in a different way.
How the Museum Started
The museum officially became a nonprofit organization in 2000. This happened after the death of Albert Szukalski. He was a Belgian artist. Albert Szukalski created the very first sculptures at this site in 1984. He placed them near an old, abandoned railway station in Rhyolite.
The First Sculptures
One of Szukalski's most famous works is The Last Supper. This sculpture shows ghostly, life-sized figures. They are arranged just like in the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Szukalski made these figures in a very interesting way. He draped plaster-soaked burlap fabric over real people. He waited until the plaster dried enough to stand on its own. In the same year, 1984, he also created Ghost Rider. This is another plaster figure, looking like it's about to ride a bicycle.
Amazing Sculptures You'll See
Between 1984 and 2007, other artists added their own creations to the museum. Three other artists from Belgium contributed their work.
- In 1989, Albert Szukalski made Desert Flower. This sculpture is put together from shiny chrome car parts. He found these parts right in the desert!
- In the 1990s, Hugo Heyrman added Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada. This sculpture is made from cinder blocks. It's partly inspired by the idea of a pixel, which are the tiny dots that make up images on screens.
- Fred Bervoets created Tribute to Shorty Harris. This artwork celebrates one of the prospectors. His discovery of gold in 1904 led to a big gold rush in the area.
- Dre Peters made Icara. This is a hand-carved female version of Icarus. Icarus is a boy from Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun.
- David Spicer created Chained to the Earth. He made this sculpture from rhyolite rock. He got the rock from a nearby quarry.
- Another interesting piece is Sofie Siegmann's Sit Here!. This is a couch sculpture. It was first made in 2000 for a children's museum in Las Vegas. It was fixed up and moved to Goldwell in 2007.
- In 2006, Eames Demetrios added a special plaque. It's called Rhyolite's District of Shadows.
Supporting Artists and Events
The Goldwell Open Air Museum is part of the Alliance of Artists Communities. This group helps support artists. In 2008, a group from New York chose Goldwell for a special mentorship project. The Red Barn is also where an arts festival takes place every October. It's called Albert's Tarantella.
Gallery
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Lady Desert The Venus of Nevada by Dr.Hugo Heyrman
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Tribute to Shorty Harris (1994) by Fred Bervoets
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Ghost Rider (1984) by Charles Albert Szukalski
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The Last Supper (1984) by Charles Albert Szukalski
