originally posted on 1/13/2023
Photo: Rus Ozana. View full-sized image.
Not to be confused with a certain roller coaster museum being built near Lubbock, Texas, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), located in North Adams, opened an exhibit on October 30, 2022, that has an operating roller coaster in its collection.
Photo: Cheri Armstrong. View full-sized image.
On view through January 2024 is Brake Run Helix, an exhibit by artist EJ Hill. The soft pink coaster is named Brava! and is a product from Skyline Attractions. Anyone familiar with that company’s P’sghetti Bowl coaster offerings will recognize the track construction.
As described on the MoCA website, “In Brake Run Helix, Hill inverts the experience of riding a roller coaster, transforming it from a shared ritual of joy and terror to an individual performance: only one person may ride the roller coaster at a time. Brava!’s single cart emerges from behind a two-story velvet stage curtain, moves across the coaster’s pink tracks, and ultimately comes to rest on the wooden stage, while onlookers observe from below. Visitors can see the roller coaster activated by riders throughout the day.”
Photo: Cheri Armstrong. View full-sized image.
The museum staff and Hill refer to it as a “performance piece.” This writer refers to it as fun and smooth as glass.
With a single car that holds one adult, and a schedule that has Brava! operating just once an hour (for a total of six rides per day), an appointment is required to ride. The schedule fills quickly as additional dates are announced.
Brava! drops from the third floor to the second. Photo: Rus Ozana. View full-sized image.
Brava! is on the second floor, and the loading platform is one story above it. Just prior to each ride, the car is winched up the track to the upper floor for boarding. Two stakes are inserted through the underside of the track just in front of and behind the car, acting as a stabilizing brake so that the rider can climb aboard the nicely padded and comfortable car.
Once the ride is over, the car is pulled back up to the third floor. Photos: Cheri Armstrong. View full-sized image.
View full-sized image.
Once securely buckled in, a member of the museum staff removes the stakes and pushes the car along the level track to the opening where the full view of the coaster can be seen. The rider is then pushed to the precipice, er, to the first drop.
The push can be as quick or as gentle as the staff member feels appropriate for the rider, so the view from above can give a short (or very short) overall view of the track the rider will soon traverse. That 12-foot first drop brings the rider over a figure-eight-shaped track, curving slightly to the left after the drop and into a couple of gently banked dips to the right. The last dip bears left and brings the rider to a short section of straight track, where the momentum of the car heads partway up the hill that goes to the third floor. The car rolls backward into those last couple of dips — the weight of the rider determines how far back the car travels — and then rolls back and forth a couple of times until the car moves slowly enough to stop on a small, padded brake. Once stopped, the same “stake-brake” system is used to stabilize the car for the rider to unbuckle the seatbelt and disembark.
From the time this writer/rider was first pushed toward the first drop to the final stop on the skid brake was all of 42 seconds. It’s a quick and very smooth trip.
In addition to Brava! are several wooden exhibit pieces representing (nonridable) roller coaster tracks, structures and cars. There are also some of Hill’s paintings, most with a roller coaster or amusement park theme.
ACEer Cheri Armstrong takes a spin. Photo Cheri Armstrong collection. View full-sized image.
Paintings and sculptures are also part of the exhibit. View full-sized image.
Photo: Rus Ozana. View full-sized image.
There is no charge above the admission price to the museum to ride the coaster (once a reservation is made).
At present, ride availability is released every one-to-two weeks or so. Read about the artist and the exhibit, and check for reservation times on the Mass MoCA website: https://massmoca.org/event/ej-hill/.
Regional Rep Rus Ozana scores a coaster credit on Brava! Photo by Chris Gray. View full-sized image.
Brava! is powered only by gravity (other than the human push out of the station) and is a good little ride to add to that coaster credit count — or for 42 seconds of pure fun!
— Rus Ozana, ACE New England Regional Representative
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