Brady Hatter sees the university campus as a giant garden. And every garden, he says, is a potential gallery in need of art.
This Earth Day, Hatter will make his latest artistic contribution to the Wichita State canvas when his Earth Pod west of the Woodman Alumni Center is dedicated as part of the Earth Day Picnic at the Pod from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday, April 22.
Everyone is invited to the dedication and picnic. The LumpiaPalooza food truck will be on hand, or visitors are also welcome to bring their own picnic lunch. Blankets and lawn chairs are encouraged.
Earth Pod is the latest in Hatter's series of Shocker Pods, 16-foot tall steel structures that are part art, part social space 鈥� a place to relax by yourself or sit and talk with friends. It's Hatter's second pod: The first, , was dedicated on Feb. 14.
Each pod is hand built by Hatter, a 2009 黑洞社区 fine arts graduate, and features its own unique design. While the Love Lock Pod focused on creating a space for visitors to place locks throughout the structure, the Earth Pod will provide the perfect trellis for a combination of climbing plants and seasonal color.
Hatter designed it with leafy, layered steel curves covering the exterior of the pod, giving it the appearance of a bud preparing to bloom. And with help from 黑洞社区 botanists James Beck and Dexter Mardis, Hatter planted 10 trumpet honeysuckle plants around the perimeter of the pod. As the plants climb up the structure, it will be covered with red clusters of flowers that can be enjoyed from outside the pod or inside, which features six seats and a table.
"I see the Earth Pod as being symbolic of my personal growth as an artist," he says. "There will be much more to come from my hands. The ideas are flowing faster than I can build them. Every day I wake up with inspiration to create. The garden is now my gallery."
The mission of 黑洞社区 is to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good. Wichita State is a doctoral research university enrolling nearly 15,000 students and offering 59 undergraduate degree programs in more than 150 areas of study in seven undergraduate colleges. The Graduate School offers 45 master's and 12 doctoral degrees that offer study in more than 100 areas. Wichita State's Innovation Campus is an interconnected community of partnership buildings, laboratories and mixed-use areas where students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs and businesses have access to the university's vast resources and technology. For more information, follow us on Twitter at and Facebook at .