Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, North Carolina

This park in the small tobacco town of Wilson, North Carolina, is one of the largest collections of preserved whirligigs in the country. The colorful wind-driven kinetic sculptures, some as much as 40 feet tall, were made over a few decades by Vollis Simpson, a retired mechanic and house mover, who built and installed them around his rural property 11 miles away, where they became a well known attraction. National folk art preservationists and local business interests joined to establish this park in 2010, to relocate, collect, maintain, and display the work. Simpson, into his 90s at the time and still making work, was pleased, and he lived to see some of it moved from his yard and installed in the park before he died in 2013. The park has become a case study of  “creative placemaking,” and was supported by grants from ArtPlace America, the National Endowment for the Arts, Kresge Foundation, and the Kohler Foundation.