Benches and bicycle racks

Alvin Frega is a sculptor based in Durham, North Carolina. He designed and made a series of functional artworks in the form of benches and bike racks for the Museum Park. The benches are used as seating throughout the Park, and the racks are used as bicycle parking spaces beside a paved trail. To create these sculptures, Frega salvaged and recycled steel prison cell bars and scrap metal from the demolition of the prison that once occupied this site. He combined these materials to create structures that are both useful and artistically designed. 

I’m an object maker. It’s a very constructivist process for me. I am building things, I am fastening and putting things together. I have always liked building and making things.

Alvin Frega

From 1920 to 1997, North Carolina operated a prison farm and then a correctional center on this property. The prison was later named Polk Youth Center (also known as Polk Correctional Institution). The young men who were incarcerated there were moved to Granville Correctional Institution in 1997. The prison buildings, located where the NCMA Welcome Center and parking lot are today, were demolished and removed in 2003. The smokestack beside the Welcome Center is the only remaining structure from the former prison. Frega’s benches and bicycle racks are public artworks that recognize the presence and labor of the individuals who were housed at the prison. They also serve as visual reminders of the site’s complex history.

The possibilities of art are endless. That’s the beauty of it. There is so much more that can be done.

Alvin Frega