Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

North Carolina’s Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum

Watch more with these video collections:

In the small town of Wilson, North Carolina, the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum is attracting visitors from near and far. In the video above, UNC-TV’s North Carolina Weekend shows off the 31 restored wind-powered sculptures created by the late Vollis Simpson.

Farm machinery repairman Vollis Simpson began making gigantic kinetic sculptures at his family farm in Wilson County when he was nearing retirement age. He kept making his “whirligigs”–seven days a week–until about six months before he dies at the age of 94 in May of 2013. By that time he was famous. The story of Wilson’s campaign to use the renowned whirligigs to recharge its downtown has catapulted the community into the national spotlight.

Read more about Simpson in The New York Times: Junkyard Poet of Whirligigs and Windmills. There’s also footage of him talking about his work.

Next: Rowland Emett’s Marvelous Dream Machines, the kinetic sculptures of Anthony Howe, giant sculptures along North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway, and Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Wind tunnel choreography in Skydive Arena

Rion Nakaya

What is wind? – It’s Okay To Be Smart

Rion Nakaya

Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest on the beach in San Francisco

Rion Nakaya

Theo Jansen’s Animaris Mulus Strandbeest

Rion Nakaya

The Weather Artist: Chasing Storms With Sculpture

Rion Nakaya

The Solar Do-Nothing Machine by Charles and Ray Eames

Rion Nakaya

The Singing, Ringing Tree of Lancashire, England

Rion Nakaya

The physics & engineering of windmills in The Netherlands

Rion Nakaya

The Old Mill, a Walt Disney Silly Symphony (1937)

Rion Nakaya