A new home for ‘NuPenny’: Art installation moves to KU campus
The traveling art installation known as "NuPenny's Last Stand" is on the move again.
A Spencer Museum of Art official confirmed the move Tuesday, after snapshots of the chrome-colored quasi-toy store — this time positioned in a grassy clearing flanked by trees — surfaced on Twitter over the weekend.
Created by Wichita artist Randy Regier, the Space Age-y kiosk has spent the past two and a half months lighting up (literally, in the evenings) a dead end of 19th Street in Lawrence VenturePark. As of last Friday, it's now located on the Kansas University campus, says Spencer Museum communications coordinator Elizabeth Kanost, though in keeping with the whimsy of "NuPenny," she's not revealing where exactly.
The art installation is part of the Spencer Museum's At Large program, which aims to keep patrons engaged with offsite programming and events until the museum reopens after renovations wrap next year.
The new spot was chosen collaboratively with Randy Regier and museum staff, Kanost wrote in an email. "Regier said discovering 'NuPenny' in this setting reminded him of Lucy entering Narnia through the wardrobe."
Kanost says "it's difficult to say when 'NuPenny' will decide to leave," but its new spot on the KU campus will likely be its last in Lawrence, at least this season.
Until then, the Spencer Museum is working "NuPenny's Last Stand" into several At Large programs this fall, including the museum's Backyard Bash from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday in KU's Marvin Grove — "visitors will have an ideal viewing opportunity" there, Kanost hints — as well as next month's Art Cart activity Oct. 3 and the October Slow Art Sundays event Oct. 18.
For more information, check out the Spencer Museum's At Large calendar.
Have you found NuPenny yet? Unraveling the mystery of Lawrence’s newest art installation
A curious neighbor investigates the NuPenny toy store at a dead end in East Lawrence in this time-lapse image taken Tuesday evening. by Journal-World Photo
Those cruising around the outskirts of East Lawrence (or social media) in the past few days may have noticed an eye-catching new addition to the area's normally unassuming landscape.
Venture out past the Douglas County Fairgrounds and you may come across a Space Age-y kiosk filled with chrome-colored playthings like rocket ships and cars jutting out from the concrete.
Created by Wichita artist Randy Regier, the quasi-toy shop is actually a traveling art installation called "NuPenny's Last Stand," and has made appearances in Florida, Arkansas, Maine, Illinois and right here in Kansas in the last decade or so.
Since Friday, it's been parked "somewhere" in Lawrence, say Spencer Museum of Art staffers, though they're not revealing where exactly until Regier himself comes to Lawrence on Saturday because they want people to seek it out for themselves as kind of an art scavenger hunt. It might be easier to find at night, when the thing lights up like a radioactive UFO.
As part of the Free State Festival and the Spencer Museum's At Large program, Regier will set up shop at "The NuPenny Home Office" from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday outside the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St. While there, he'll interact with visitors and draw maps that lead to the art installation.
If you can't make it Saturday, keep an eye out for a larger story on the Spencer Museum At Large program (and the NuPenny) in this Sunday's Journal-World.
