Kite Cloud

Type Cultural, Public
Location Lincoln, Nebraska
Status In progress
Date Schematic Design completed 2018
Project Partners
Jazz in June:
Spencer Munson, Director

Lied Center for Performing Arts:
Erin Poor, Education and Community Engagement Director

UNL Facilities Planning & Construction:
Emily Deeker, University Landscape Architect
Brooke Hay, Director, Capital Projects

FACT 15

Jazz in June has become more than just a tradition in Lincoln. It’s a summer standard. Organized by The University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Jazz in June brings thousands of people gather for live jazz, camaraderie, food, and beautiful summer weather on the Sheldon Museum of Art’s west lawn every Tuesday in June.

FACT has partnered with Jazz in June to develop a temporary structure that will provide necessary shade for musicians and the central audience area and to provide a unique visual identity for the concert series. Recalling the fair-weather cumulus humilis clouds common in Nebraska in the early summer, the Kite Cloud is a large aggregation of box kites suspended above the lawn to provide shade and dynamic form for performance area.

Implementation is scheduled for June 2019.

FACT proposes building the cloud from approximately 2000 white box kites, connected together into large “modules” with zip ties. The entire constellation of kites weighs only about 450 pounds and is easily supported, and restrained, by a network of aluminum poles and stainless-steel cables.