Downtown Lawrence unveils handmade World Cup soccer ball sculpture
A four-foot metal-and-glass soccer ball made by eight Van Go apprentices now marks Lawrence’s World Cup summer outside the Carnegie building.
The Play of Light now rises outside the Carnegie building at 200 W. Ninth St., a four-foot-tall metal-and-glass soccer ball. Eight apprentice artists from Van Go helped create the sculpture.
The project took months of planning because the team had to solve structural math, fabrication and glass-fusing problems before the sculpture could stand on its own. Rick Wright, Van Go’s art director, built the work as a collaborative public piece that could welcome visitors, while community engagement director Kathryn Clark wanted the young artists and workers to feel included in the attention surrounding Lawrence this summer.
Artists worked with a fabricator at the nonprofit to work out the calculations, then used large clear sheets of glass from Kennedy Glass, just across the street from Van Go, as the base for the mosaic-style surface. They placed colored glass pieces onto the sheets in turns, coordinating colors so they would not crowd one another’s work. After that, the glass had to be fired in a kiln for about 24 hours to fuse the design into place.
City officials expected thousands of visitors, with four teams staying in the region, including Algeria, which used Lawrence as its base camp. Residents filled Rock Chalk Park for Algeria’s open practice on June 11, and Mayor Brad Finkeldei called the team a source of warmth, energy and excitement in Lawrence. Algeria had two World Cup games scheduled at Kansas City Stadium, on June 16 and June 27, and downtown merchants were already adapting with Arabic, French and halal-friendly offerings.
On May 13, the nonprofit unveiled five World Cup-themed picnic tables made by 19 teenagers in its JAMS program, pieces designed to greet international guests and locals alike.
Van Go was founded in 1997 by Lynne Green with a donated Checker limousine and a $2,000 Kansas Arts Commission grant, and it now runs paid youth employment programs for ages 14 to 24, including The Arts Train, JAMS and PEPP. The nonprofit received the White House Coming Up Taller Award in 2006, along with other honors.
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