Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race

Complete Coverage of the 2013 Race

See our full coverage of the 2013 race!

Get Ready for 2014!

The next Baltimore race will be Saturday May 3, 2014. Are you going to enter?

Only 318 days until the 16th annual race on Saturday, May 3, 2014! Get working on building your kinetic sculpture now!

Kinetic Forum

Racers, volunteers, spectators, and other enthusiasts are welcome in our Kinetic Forum bulletin board to discuss all sorts of kinetic topics!

What’s a Kinetic Sculpture Race?

Kinetic Sculptures are amphibious, human powered works of art custom built for the race. Each May, the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) hosts the East Coast Kinetic Sculpture Race Championship on the shore of Baltimore’s Harbor in central Maryland.  The eight-hour race covers 14 miles—mostly on pavement, but also including a trip into the Chesapeake Bay and through mud and sand.

Kinetic Sculpture Racing traces its roots to Ferndale, California in 1969 when artist Hobart Brown upgraded his son’s tricycle into a 5-wheeled pentacycle that was part of a race down Main Street. (Hobart did not win.) Over the decades since, the California race evolved into a 3-day all-terrain Kinetic Grand Championship including treacherous sand dunes, water crossings, and elaborate sculptures and costumes. You can learn more on Wikipedia.

For more about the Baltimore race, browse the race photo results in the left menu.

Where can I see Kinetic Sculptures?

You can go to a Kinetic Sculpture Race on the day(s) they run, or a Kinetic Sculpture Museum any time it’s open. The two museums are the Kinetic Sculpture Museum in Ferndale, California, and the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. AVAM displays their sculptures and the winner of the Art award in their museum year-round.

How to Build a Kinetic Sculpture

It’s back! After it disappeared from the internet, Elliot and I have restored his How To Build a Kinetic Sculpture reference guide.