AVAM’s Kinetic Sculpture Race This Saturday

American Visionary Art Museum press release:

On Saturday, May 3, 2025, the American Visionary Art Museum’s fun and frenzied Kinetic Sculpture Race, Powered by PNC, celebrates its 25th year in Baltimore. The festivities will commence, rain or shine!

As of this date, there are a staggering 29 registered teams, with participants ranging from teenagers to octogenarians, echoing the race theme of “Play!” in their design and theme songs as they prepare to travel through 15 miles of downtown Baltimore streets, mud and sand pits at Patterson Park, and the Inner Harbor, vying for honors such as ACE, Best Pit Crew, People’s Choice, Sock Creature of the Universe, and Spirit of the Glorious Founder. The highest honor in the Kinetic Sculpture Race is the Grand Mediocre Champion, awarded to the team that finishes exactly in the middle of the pack.

Sculptor David Hess has entered his vehicle, PLATYPUS (Personal Long-range All-Terrain Yacht Proven UnSafe), in every one of the 25 years of the race. PLATYPUS is a 9-person, 26-foot long, 4000-lb amphibious sculpture constructed from truck, bike, and pontoon boat parts. For Hess the race has become an annual family rite of passage, as both his son Eli, who started at age 4 and is now 30, and his 88-year-old father George have been part of the team in most years. In a recent interview with Simone Ellin of JMore Living, Hess reflects, “It’s kind of a strange realization how long I’ve been doing it, and how my family has gotten involved and stayed involved. Twenty-five years is such a long time, but it’s gone by so quickly. It’s such a huge part of so many people’s lives. We jokingly say it’s the best day of the year.” Read the full interview here.

Four of the 8 Baltimore-area school teams confirmed for this year’s race hail from Jemicy School, which offers its students an official course designed to prepare them for the annual race, led by instructor August DiMucci. The program, called Kinetic Sculpture Race Industrial Design, focuses on developing universally applicable skills through the lens of this unique tradition. Jemicy’s vehicle “Street” and its lone pilot earned 2024’s Golden Flipper Award—usually reserved for “dramatic failure” upon water entry, but was adapted to acknowledge this pilot’s perseverance and maintaining the vehicle’s ACE status despite technical difficulties, according to the Baltimore Kinetic website. The other participating Baltimore-area schools are St. Paul’s School for Boys, The Park School, Friends School of Baltimore and Mount Saint Joseph High School. Back for another year, Duke University will be participating in the race, represented by students from its mechanical engineering department in a vehicle named “Rainbow Road Rage.”

Kinetic Sculpture Race Approximate Schedule:

8:00 AM • Safety Check & Brake Test
9:30 AM • Opening Ceremonies at AVAM
10:00 AM • LeMans Start of Race on Covington Street
11:15-1:00 PM • Water Entry at Canton Waterfront
1:15-3:30 PM • Sand & Mud Obstacles in Patterson Park
4:00 PM • Finish Line at AVAM
6:00-7:00 PM • Awards Ceremony at AVAM