The Storm King School Builder’s Club, a popular extracurricular club for young builders and sculptors, meets after school each winter in search of their next project. Their mission: create an outdoor art installation worthy of public display and have fun while doing it. Each year, their sculpture is initially erected on campus and later travels to make its debut at the annual Collaborative Concepts Exhibition the following fall. This year’s exhibition is being held at the Tilly Foster Farm in Brewster, New York from September 2–October 29, 2023 and features the work of more than 25 outdoor sculptors including The Storm King School.

According to Visual Arts Dept. Chair John Carruthers, their latest work is titled Heart to Heart. “The concept was a collaborative effort and worked on by all the students following the original idea of senior Rebecca B. ‘24. She wanted to depict a heart, so the group worked on the details about what would make it interesting.”

SKS Builder’s Club Artists: Rebecca B. ‘24, Tiana G. ‘24, Xudong L. ‘24, Imen S. ‘24, Shuo W. ’24, Noah M. ‘25, Matrena M. ‘25, Ruixin P. ‘25, Shukang S. ‘25, Kalin C. ‘26.

“For example, the sculpture is designed with two sections which show both the inside and the outside of the heart. For materials, the students used mainly wood with some metal and plastic parts. Everything is connected with “veins and arteries” made out of plastic tubing. Then, it was decided to suspend it, so the heart floats and moves. Finally, they painted it in a style you would find in a medical text book, and gave it a title that reflects the two halves–’Heart to Heart.’  The title is indicated with arrows on the base, so the viewer has to guess what the exact title is,” continued Mr. Carruthers.

The opening of the exhibition is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 2, 2023 from 2 to 6 PM with a rain date of Sunday, September 3. Mr. Carruthers plans to take a group of SKS students to the show for an upcoming weekend trip. “Hopefully we can bring a group to the opening. I encourage everyone who can make it to visit the show and check out our students’ work on display with a backdrop of nature and pastoral views and even farm animals.”