Benches and Bicycle Racks

North Carolina artist Alvin Frega designed and fabricated a unique series of functional artworks — benches and bike racks — for the Museum Park, incorporating metal bars and other found materials he salvaged and recycled during the demolition of the prison that once occupied this site. From 1920 to 1997, North Carolina operated a prison farm and then a correctional institution on this property. What was later named Polk Youth Center and Polk Correctional Institute and its inmates were relocated to Granville Correctional Institution in 1997. The prison buildings were removed in 2003. Frega’s functional artworks recognize the presence and labor of the individuals housed at Polk and the site’s complex history.