Art in the Park - Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park
If you're in Key West during February, you'll want to take a trip out to Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park. Not only is it an interesting side-trip in it's own right, but it's time for annual art exhibit that's unusual, inspiring, and thought provoking - in other words, classic Key West!
Not every state park boasts its own art exhibit, let alone one that features outsized, outdoor sculpture... but then, not every state park is lucky enough to have someone as talented as Jim Racchi as a Park Ranger!
Every year the number of artists, and the range of styles represented, grows... as does the size of the sculptures!
Art in the Park is the brainchild of Sculptor/Ranger Jim Racchi, who started Art in the Park in 1995 when he recognized the need for "an alternative for outdoor sculpture," and saw that Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park was the perfect location for staging such an ambitious exhibit.
Jim works in metal, recycled welded steel scrap metal, to be exact. He finds scrap yards to be "inspirational source of material."
With a unique personality like Racchi's driving Art in the Park, you can see why it's turned into one of the most eagerly anticipated art events of the year on the island. Every year the number of artists, and the range of styles represented, grows... as does the size of the sculptures!
Each February the park invites local sculpture artists to display in and around the park. Past artists have included: Chris Bribach, Terry Thommes and Roberta Marks, Susan Rodgers and Anne Labriola.
By the way... this year's featured piece is by Jim, and is called Joe's Godzilla. You've really got to see this to appreciate it!
The setting of Art in the Park has become one of its biggest selling points... there's just something to seeing larger-than-life-sized steel, stone, and ceramic sculpture scattered throughout the scenic beauty of the Park. Each of the pieces in the exhibit is unusual enough in itself to command attention, but when placed in the midst of sandy beaches, sand dunes, and sea oats, they take on a hyper-surreal appearance!
Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park covers over 80 acres of pristine beaches and historic military positions. Construction was begun on Ft. Zachary Taylor in 1845, and continued on and off throughout the next twenty years.
Seized by the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War, the fort played a large part in stopping Confederate blockade-runners from using Key West as an entry point into the South. By the end of the war nearly 200 cannons and an enormous ammunition dump were in place, as well as sanitary facilities flushed by the tide, and a desalinization plant.
Moderization construction removed the top two levels of the fort, in order to emplace heavier guns. The guns left over from the Civil War were buried, and only started to come to light in the late 1960s. This buried arsenal is the largest collection of Civil War cannons in the U.S., and is the reason that Ft. Zachary Taylor is a designated a National Historic Landmark.
Art in the Park is the perfect opportunity
to enjoy Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park. Stumbling upon larger-than-life
sculpture while exploring the ruins of one of America's best preserved
Eighteenth Century forts is the type of experience you'll only find
in Key West! 
