LIVERPOOL.- The UK’s first ever glow-in-the-dark wheels park, Everton Park Wheels Park, commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and Liverpool City Council, in partnership with Friends of Everton Park, the Land Trust and Liverpool Vision, will open in Everton Park in autumn 2015.

Acclaimed Korean artist Koo Jeong A and specialist designers Wheelscape Skateparks have created a beautiful new public space, which glows with phosphorescent colour at night. It is conceived both as an artwork and as a fully functional, state of the art wheels park, open to skaters and BMX bikers to use and enjoy. The design for the central bowl of the wheels parks responds to its location in Everton Park, and is integrated with a wider landscape of ramps and slides, training area and a BMX track. It sits alongside a play area, outdoor picnic spaces, and astroturf pitches. Young people from North Liverpool and Liverpool City Skaters have been closely involved in all stages of the project’s development.

Everton Park was created in the 1980s out of the extensive house clearances that took place in the area. On the site where grid-iron rows of terrace houses used to stand, an urban park was built. At its heart is Everton Brow, the highest point in Liverpool, affording dramatic views over both the city and the River Mersey.

Everton Park Wheels Park is part of citywide vision developed by Liverpool City Council. Continuing development of the park includes numerous zones designated for nature, sport, recreation and contemplation.

Currently managed by Liverpool City Council, it is anticipated that the park will be managed in the future by the national land management charity, the Land Trust and Friends of Everton Park.

Koo Jeong A was born in Seoul, Korea in 1967. Since the early 1990s, she has worked in various media, often incorporating objects, still and moving images, audio elements, as well as scents within site-specific environments. Major solo exhibitions of her work include Koo Jeong-A: 16:07, Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf (2012), Constellation Congress, Dia, USA (2010), and Koo Jeong-A, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2008). In 2011, she created OTRO, her first glow-in-the-dark skate park, commissioned by Centre International d’Art et du Paysage, Ilde Vassivière, France, which led to the current commission for Everton Park.

Koo Jeong A, said: “Working as an artist in the community of Everton has been a fascinating process. What appealed to me about this has been the way that the entire community has worked together in a harmonious way to create this project. It has been an inspiration to work on this project for Everton and to make it truly a project for the people who live there.”

John Hutchison, Friends of Everton Park, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with Koo, who has thrown herself wholeheartedly into the project, genuinely participating in the whole process of creating a brand new experience for our community. We hope the Everton Park Wheels Park will be a beacon for young people, to learn about and enjoy the thrill of all kinds of wheels based sport.”

Sally Tallant, Director, Liverpool Biennial, said: “This commission is a reflection of our commitment to bringing art into the city and into the every day lives of people. Just as the Snowdrop sails the Mersey as a living work of art by Sir Peter Blake, Koo Jeong A has had an amazing opportunity to work with people in Everton.”