A day visit to the Museum can easily include a stroll through 100 Acres no matter what you are wearing.  The pretty sundress and sandals I wore the night of the event fit in perfectly with the atmosphere of the party, but didn’t facilitate fully exploring the park. Something occurred to me as mucked up my sandals and watched a few women struggling around the park in high heels (ouch)…

A visit to 100 Acres is not your ordinary museum visit.

A photo I snapped while looking up at Type A’s Team Building (Align)

I’m already planning my next trip to 100 Acres and this time I’ll be prepared to explore the nature as well as the art.  Clothing choice is weather dependant, of course, but all terrain footwear is a must!  (An aside- If you dropped me on a deserted island and gave me a choice between a sweat-wicking, quick-drying, technical fabric outfit or an attractive, Soccer Pro companion… I’d pick the clothes every time.  Well… maybe.)

Here’s a quick rundown of the essentials I plan stuff in my backpack:

Sunglasses, sun screen, bug spray, camera, a picnic lunch, binoculars (for checking out birds), a bottle of water, a plastic bag for any trash I might produce (LNT!), a notepad and pencil, something to trade with Jessica and Michael out on Andrea Zittel’s Indianapolis Island, and maybe a book to enjoy.
My list reminds me more of gear requirements for summer camp than a museum trip.  But hey, I want to have everything I’ll need to spend a day going over, under, around and through the Park on an artful adventure.

If you were out Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis and happened to see a sculpture flying mid-air across town, don’t worry — you weren’t imagining things.

The sculpture, East Gate/West Gate by Sasson Soffer took flight at around 6 pm and safely landed about ten minutes later. The work is one of four outdoor sculptures the IMA has loaned to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis — otherwise known as IUPUI. Three of the sculptures were relocated earlier in the year, but East Gate/West Gate was too big to transfer via truck. Measuring 24 x 40 x 30 feet, the sculpture could only be moved via helicopter.

The IMA mapped a route along the White River that allowed for the fewest traffic interruptions, and the sculpture made a smooth landing with a welcoming crowd on IUPUI’s campus to greet it.

I bet you wish we had video of that, huh? Well, here it is, straight from the Nugget Factory:

The four IMA sculptures will join newly commissioned works of public art to be located along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The trail will connect neighborhoods, entertainment amenities and Indianapolis’s five downtown cultural districts. The western corridor of the trail, to be completed in 2011, will pass through the campus of IUPUI along Blackford Street and will run adjacent to two of the four sculptures from the IMA collection.

Sculptures on loan to IUPUI include:

East Gate/West Gate, 1973
Sasson Soffer (American, b. 1925)
stainless steel
24 x 40 x 30 ft.
82.56

Spaces with Iron, 1972
Will Horwitt (American, 1934 -1985)
cast iron and bronze
54 x 84 x 68 3/4 in.
81.220

Mega-Gem, 1989
John Francis Torreano (American, b. 1941)
heliarch welded aluminum plate, 36 cast aluminum anodized rosettes
7’2″ x 11′ x 7’2″
1997.6

Portrait of History, 1997
Shan Zou Zhou (Chinese, b. 1952)
Bronze
100 x 24 x 30 in.
2001.388

I searched the web for other interesting stories of relocating large pieces, but had a hard time finding anything. If you know of any, please comment about them. And if you have video or imagery — even better!!