The kinetic sculpture, titled “Blooming De Soto, Rising Tomorrows,” took two years and more than 30 students to complete.
April showers bring May flowers — or, in this case, a 15-foot sunflower sculpture outside De Soto City Hall.
City officials, the De Soto Arts Council and USD 232 students and staff celebrated the installation of the kinetic sculpture, titled “Blooming De Soto, Rising Tomorrows,” on Thursday. The piece, which has two layers that rotate with the wind, was made entirely by USD 232 Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) students at the Cedar Trails Exploration Center (CTEC).
“It was really interesting as we were trying to get the kinetic element of the sculpture to work,” said Mill Valley senior Dillon Schmidtmann, an engineering CTEC student. “We were really concerned about the safety of the sculpture. We spent a lot of time just brainstorming.”
The students engineered the sculpture to keep the moving parts from moving too fast.
“It was just a really cool process to figure all of the physics out,” Schmidtmann added. “It was really interesting, and we didn’t expect that going into the project.”
The De Soto Arts Council first commissioned the piece in the fall of 2024.
“I think someday, you might not realize it, but you’re probably going to bring your kids back to see that sculpture,” Diana Zwahlen, De Soto Arts Council vice president, said to the students. “Or maybe, knowing that the arts are important to your community, this is where you maybe think your life is going to be spent.
“And maybe, you can be the ones who then promote the arts in your community,” Zwahlen added.
Students formed teams, drafted ideas, surveyed De Soto residents and presented designs to the De Soto City Council. The rotating sunflower took nearly two years to complete, with more than 30 students playing some kind of role in the process.
“Everybody was just so excited to work on it,” said Mill Valley senior Zachary Chang, an engineering Cedar Trails Exploration Center student.
The city of De Soto spent $20,000 from its public art fund on the project, said Brandon Mills, assistant city administrator.
“Public art in De Soto, I think it just adds so much to our community to have projects that display art, that bring the community together, create discussions, and this project is a reflection of exactly why that’s important,” said Mayor Rick Walker. “It’s also a reflection of what happens when great partnerships come together.”
The original article published by the Johnson County Post can be found here.
