Running through the streets of Kansas City has had an unexpected bonus this week as the area we’re staying in has lots of impressive sculptures dotted around the neighborhood. I wondered what the driving force might have been behind these impressive artistic displays, then I noticed yesterday morning that just up the road from our hotel is the Kember Museum of Contemporary Art. To break up my daily routine of laps around the local park I took a wonder up past the museum tonight which although closed, did still have some displays outside.

Seeing these works of art reminded me of a tail system in an area called the Forest of Dean in England where the agency that maintains the woodland has commissioned a number of sculptures that have then been placed in remote woodland settings. The displays are designed to possess a harmony with the natural environment and generally can only be viewed by hiking to their location. The two sculptures that I found most striking were a wire sculpture of deer leaping out of a pool of water and a stain glass image suspended high in the trees so the sunlight shone through it onto the trail below.

Good job Guthrie isn’t travelling with me. She’s scared stiff of tiny real woodland spiders, I can’t imaging what she’d do if she was surprised by an enormous bronze spider in the woods!