The N.C. Zoo houses one of the largest public art collections in the state.
by Cathy Martin
At the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, a large white rhino — one of the most popular attractions in the Africa section — rests his massive frame in a shady patch near the Watani Grasslands habitat.
While most of the zoo’s 1,700-plus animals roam behind protective fences or glass-walled enclosures, kids (of all ages) clamber atop the rhino, grabbing his horns, wrapping their arms around his enormous muzzle and three-toed feet, climbing up — and then sliding back down — his back with glee.
The rhino — a bronze statue by Asheboro artist Johnpaul Harris — is one of about 150 works of art scattered throughout the 2,800-acre zoo. It’s part of an initiative started in 1993 by then-curator of design Ellen Grier.
Since the first commission — a ceramic tile installation of a rattlesnake titled Sonoran Snake at the entrance to the Desert exhibit — the zoo has commissioned works by more than 60 artists, including over 40 bronze sculptures like the white rhino. The zoo’s Art in the Park program is one of the largest public art collections in the state.
Most of the art here isn’t placed on pedestals — it’s integrated into the landscape and intended to be touched and enjoyed.
“Most of our pieces are life-size,” says Angela Reavis, a Yadkin County native who joined the zoo as curator of design in 2023. “They don’t have to be hyper-realistic — the texture, the forms themselves, how the sculpture is made, can be more abstract — but the general shape and the size … we try to make those life-size so our guests … can interact with that sculpture. You can touch the size of the head and the ears and the paws and get that understanding of the scale of that animal.”
Some of the art is functional, like the Marsh Cattail Gate by Greensboro artist Jim Gallucci, or the Watani Cooling Station, a tree-like mister made of rebar that keeps visitors cool on hot summer days. Other works are “hidden” in the landscape, awaiting discovery by curious zoo explorers, like a ball python curled on a rock by Charlotte native Chris Gabriel or the Stalking Little Blue Heron perched in a wetland habitat by Virginia artist David H. Turner.
While the park is state-supported, nearly all of the art is privately funded through the North Carolina Zoo Society, the zoo’s nonprofit arm.
One of the newest sculptures, representing the zoo’s first animal inhabitants, a pair of Galapagos tortoises named Tort and Retort, was commissioned to commemorate the zoo’s 50th anniversary in 2024. Next year, when the zoo debuts its long-anticipated, $102 million Asia section, it will include five new works of art — the most the zoo has unveiled at one time. For one large piece, the zoo put out a public call for artists, drawing submissions from across the globe. The winning proposal — a composition of two adult tigers on a rock form and a white stork by Asheville artist Todd Frahm — will sit at the entrance to the 12.5-acre Asia section.
Art in the Park gives visitors yet another way to experience the natural-habitat zoo, along with its animal inhabitants and its recent designation as an accredited botanical garden.
“It’s such an interesting job,” Reavis says. “Not a lot of zoos have an in-house exhibits team or a public art collection like we do, so it’s really cool.” SP
The N.C. Zoo is located at 4401 Zoo Parkway in Asheboro, about 1.5 hours from Charlotte.
