WORKSHOP BRINGS ART AND SPEED TOGETHER FOR KIDS 7 - 16

Beam Camp Presents: Gerbo’s Gravity Racer Grand Prix

Date: Sunday, May 4, 2008 (rain date: Sunday, May 11, 2008)
Time: 11AM – 3PM
Place: Owl’s Head Park, 6700 Shore Road, Brooklyn, NY
Admission: Free (pizza will be served until it lasts)

On Sunday, May 4, Art and Speed collide (safely) at the First Annual
Gerbo’s Gravity Racer Grand Prix. Beam Camp and Mechanical Sculptor
Steve “Gerbo” Gerberich invite creative-minded racer-builders aged 7 -
16 and their families to Owl’s Head Park in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn for an
afternoon of sculptural collage and mini-car racing. Guided by Gerbo
and Beam Camp staff, each young racer will build a basic chassis from
provided wooden components. The Racer/Sculptors will then customize
their vehicles using elements from Gerbo’s own vast collection of
objects of under-recognized beauty and utility.

Whether built for speed, beauty or both, everyone’s 12 oz. racing dream
machine will be celebrated in either the Speedster or Show Boat
divisions. The Speedsters will compete head-to-head on the 40-foot wood
racetrack. The latter will strut their stuff purely based on aesthetics.

Beam Camp, a summer camp for the fine and manual arts in southern New
Hampshire, and Gerbo began their relationship in 2006 when he and
colleague Nathaniel Lieb masterminded that summer’s Beam Project, a
fleet of seven six-foot wooden vehicles that were designed and
fabricated by the campers.

Please join us for an afternoon of fun, creativity and speed. That’s
Sunday, SUNDAY, May 4th at OWL’S HEAD RAAACEWAAY PARK! To reserve
a spot, RSVP to workshop@beamcamp.com
or by calling (718) 569-0332. Car building supplies will be limited to
the first 70 racers to RSVP.

DIRECTIONS TO OWL’S HEAD PARK
By Public Transit: Take R Train to Bay Ridge Avenue. Walk west three
blocks on 68th St. to the southeast corner of the park at 68th St and
Colonial Rd. By bus, take the B9 or the B1 to the 68th St. and Bay
Ridge Avenue stop.
Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/2fw8lh

ABOUT GRAVITY RACERS
Like all great racing traditions, this one started on the back roads.
It was the summer of 2006 that Gerbo and an elite pit crew of summer
campers unleashed upon the hills of New Hampshire their foot-long piney
prototypes constructed of pure imagination and propelled by unfiltered
gravity. Yes it’s about speed, yes, speed and so much more; design,
whimsy, style, inspiration. Smell the friction, feel the knotty
exhilaration of Gerbo’s Gravity Racer Grand Prix.

ABOUT BEAM CAMP
Beam is a sleepaway summer camp in Strafford, New Hampshire where young
people, 7-16, explore collaboration and creative problem solving
through the fine and manual arts. The centerpiece of the camp program
is The Beam Project, a large-scale collaborative endeavor that campers
plan, produce and play with in collaboration with a different
distinguished artist, architect or general big thinker each
summer. In the afternoons, campers participate in Domains,
elective mini-courses that build individual skills in the arts and
athletics. Beam’s 2008 session runs from Saturday, July 26th to Sunday,
August 17th. More at: http://www.beamcamp.com

ABOUT GERBO (aka STEVE GERBERICH)
Gerberich is a problem solver who uses basic mechanical systems to
realize solutions. His evolved gadgetry has turned into a profession.
Constructed from old machine parts, kitchen utensils, pieces of
furniture, lighting fixtures, medical supplies, toys and carnival
figurines, Gerberich’s work offers viewers a unique way to interact
with contemporary sculpture, explore the principles of simple
mechanical motion or simply ponder the remarkable inventiveness of his
art. “Springs, Sprockets & Pulleys” –his traveling exhibition—has
set many museum attendance records and made its debut at Grand Central
Terminal, New York City in 1994.More at: http://www.gerbomatic.com