Giant Red Ball Rolls Away from Toledo Museum

The 15-foot tall, 250-pound inflated ball, sponsored by the Toledo Museum of Art, broke free from an alley installation and did its best pinball wizard, hung a left at a three-way intersection in downtown Toledo and then rolled over a row of parked cars.

The video was captured by Instragram user jeremy149. Some can be seen in a video sprinting after the ball as it turns the corner from Madison Avenue onto St. Clair Street. The recovery team included members of the traveling crew, museum staff, bystanders, and a waiter from Ice, Ms. Garrow said.

The RedBall Project is part of the Toledo Museum of Art’s “Play Time” exhibition this summer and has been “squeezed into unexpected spaces in cities across the globe”, including Abu Dhabi, Paris, Toronto, Sydney and Montreal, according to a news release.

“On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it”, Perschke said.

Friday, August 21: 11 a.m.to 6 p.m., Boyd’s Retro Candy Store, 954 Phillips Ave.

The big red ball made a brief escape this week.

The ball’s unexpected voyage lends new context to Perschke’s statement about the project. “Through the magnetic, playful, and charismatic nature of the RedBall the work is able to access the imagination embedded in all of us”. RedBall has appeared in almost two dozen cities worldwide. Its stay in Ohio is scheduled to last through Sunday, August 23, after which it will spend a week in Marseilles in September and in Bordeaux in October.

“Like a boat with lots of sail and no rudder, it can really move in high winds”, Perschke said. “I guess that day it chose to go for a little jog in the rain”.