KU to bring Keith Haring Fitness Park to campus
Kutztown University is partnering with Kutztown Community Partnership to bring a one-of-a-kind Keith Haring Fitness Park to campus to help promote health and wellness in the Kutztown community. The interactive fitness park will be located on the corner of Baldy Street and Normal Avenue, on the KU campus, where Haring’s art will be integrated into every element.
Keith Haring was a legendary activist and artist who revolutionized pop art through his graffiti-like pieces full of abstract lines and colorful flairs. His 1980s illustrations grew out of the New York street culture and has become a widely recognized visual language to many.
The Keith Haring Fitness Collection is a limited edition, outdoor, public art collaboration with the Keith Haring Foundation in New York and Outdoor Fitness Court and the National Fitness Campaign. The fitness court will feature a 32-foot by 35-foot outdoor bodyweight circuit training system with30 pieces of body-weight fitness elements, including seven full-body circuit training stations and a body-weight training wall.
Haring was born and raised in Kutztown and gifted the ‘Untitled (Figure Balancing on Dog)’ to Kutztown Park in the early 90s, where the sculpture remains today. More of his iconic art can be found on a floor mural in the New Arts Program building on Main Street. Haring also gifted a 1984 drawing of the Nativity scene to Kutztown’s St. John’s United Church of Christ.
Haring attended the Kutztown Middle School, now the home of the Kutztown Area Historical Society, 212 S. Whiteoak
St., where the the historical society features original Haring art drawn on several chalkboards that are protected under plexiglass. His elementary art can also be found in buildings of the Kutztown School District. In November 2021, Haring’s niece, Yenna Hill, designed a mural on the side of Young One’s Records building, 26 S. Whiteoak St., Kutztown. The mural was then painted by community members, student artists and some of Haring’s family members. Among Haring’s family members who were present and contributed to this mural were Haring’s father, Allen, his sister, Karen DeLong, and his great aunt.
The park is set to be ready in the fall of this year and will feature Haring’s iconic dancing figures designs.