The city of Santa Fe, in partnership with San Francisco-based National Fitness Campaign, is preparing to open an outdoor gym in SWAN Park in mid-December, designed with iconic pop art by Keith Haring.
Santa Fe was selected as one of 10 cities across the country to build such facilities after applying to the campaign that worked with the Keith Haring Foundation in New York to develop the exclusive project.
The 90-acre park – whose name stands for Southwest Area Node – is located on Jaguar Drive, on the edge of the city’s southside.
Depending on funding availability and community interest, a handful of other parks, including Salvador Perez and Monica Lucero, may also host fitness areas, according to Pauline Kamiyama, director of the city’s Department of Arts and Culture.
The court has seven training zones, each focusing on a different type of movement to enable full-body workout at all levels of ability. It comes with a $ 250,000 city price tag.
One recent afternoon, two local mothers – Brigitte Probst, who has two children, and Kirsten Minns, who has three – spent time at SWAN Park with their homeschooling group visiting various parks across the city. Both say their children are excited to use the devices.
“It’s really nice to see that they have expanded the possibilities here in this park,” says Probst.
Seat users can download a free app from the National Fitness Campaign, which was founded in 1979 with the aim of promoting healthy lifestyles. The app offers instructional videos as well as training tips and challenges, and the city trains some of its employees on the devices so they can teach courses.
The city is also looking for volunteer teachers. Anyone interested in this must get certified and can contact Kamiyama at [email protected].
Kamiyama, whose division worked with Parks and Recreation to get the project off the ground, says several parks were rated for the court but it ultimately made sense to have them on the underserved south side.
The SWAN Park Court is designed as a demonstration project and will start completely with courses in spring. With just one license to Haring’s art, the city will turn to local artists to design other facilities, with public and private fundraising, and a $ 10,000 prize from the campaign to be used on the next court.
Construction on the park started a few weeks ago and work on the flooring and graphics is ongoing.
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