Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race

Only 38 days until the race on Saturday, May 6. Get working on your spectator costume now!

Get moving: the deadline for kinetinaut entry forms is 4pm Friday, April 1! Download the entry form on the Enter! page which also has tips for building a great entry.

Join the community to talk with other Kinetic racers, spectators, and volunteers! Due to persistent spammers, automatic forum registration is disabled. To join the forum, please email Tom at the address at the bottom of the page, with a brief note about your interest in Kinetics and the username you’d like.

Kinetic Sculptures are amphibious, human powered works of art custom built
for the race. Each May, the American
Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) produces and hosts the East Coast Kinetic Sculpture Race
Championship on the shore of Baltimore’s Harbor in central Maryland. The eight-hour race
covers 15 miles—mostly on pavement, but also including a trip into the
Chesapeake Bay and through mud and sand.

Kinetic Sculpture Racing began in Ferndale, California in 1969 when artist Hobart Brown upgraded his son’s tricycle into a 5-wheeled pentacycle and was challenged to 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 including a list of other races nationwide.

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

You can go to a Kinetic Sculpture Race on race days, or the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. AVAM displays Fifi and their other sculptures year round in the dedicated Sculpture Barn.

Learn from Elliot’s How To Build a Kinetic Sculpture reference guide.