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Space Whale is a stained-glass and steel sculpture of a humpback whale and her calf at City Plaza in downtown Reno, Nevada. It debuted at Burning Man in 2016, was installed in Reno in 2017, and the city council voted to buy it in 2021.
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Space Whale
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Approximate location · 39.530° N, 119.814° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
A humpback mother and her calf, built of stained glass and steel, rise from the concrete of downtown Reno's City Plaza, a Burning Man sculpture that the city decided to keep. According to Visit Reno Tahoe, the Space Whale made its debut on the playa in 2016, created by The Pier Group and Matthew Schultz with Android Jones and Andy Tibbetts. It came to City Plaza in 2017: News 4 reported at the August dedication that the city had leased it for a full year, and gave its height as 50 feet. Visit Reno Tahoe's Burning Man guide gives 40 feet. Reno News & Review reported in 2022 that the mother whale weighs about 30,000 pounds, about half the weight of the real thing.
The glass proved the weak point. By January 2022 about a quarter of its 1,800 glass panels had been broken since installation, according to Reno News & Review. Schultz told the paper he believed about 90 per cent of the damage was accidental, mostly to the calf and to the parts of the mother within arm's reach or where people climb. The paper added that the plaza is also used as a skateboard park, and skaters occasionally hit the sculpture.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
See the whales in the open plaza in front of City Hall, with the BELIEVE sculpture. Reno News & Review reported in 2022 that skaters use the plaza and sometimes hit the sculpture, and that the glass glows from within at night. In January 2022 the Pier Group was replacing panels and upgrading the lighting.
ACCESS
City Plaza, at the corner of First and South Virginia Streets in downtown Reno, in front of City Hall. It is a public plaza; the City of Reno also runs a City Plaza webcam.
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