06/27/2024
🚨 From GBNF🚨
‼️ Mississippi’s First Keith Haring Fitness Court
Set to Open in Belhaven Heights Park this August ‼️
The National Fitness Campaign (NFC), Greater Belhaven Foundation, Community Foundation of Mississippi and Jackson Heart Foundation are excited to announce that Belhaven Heights Park has been selected as one of only ten locations nationwide for a one-of-a-kind Keith Haring outdoor Fitness Court® as part of the 2024 National Fitness Campaign. NFC is an award-winning initiative that welcomed its 500th healthy community in 2023 and is now funded to deliver vital outdoor wellness programs to 1,000 healthy communities by 2025 to help get people moving outdoors and to fight the rising fiscal and humanitarian costs of physical inactivity.
The Keith Haring Fitness Court initiative was born in 2020 as part of NFC’s Arts and Culture Series, uniting the world-renowned art of Keith Haring, one of the most influential modern artists in American history, with the world’s best outdoor gym in the Fitness Court. Jackson was originally selected by the Keith Haring Foundation as one of the national sites for the court in 2019. Its original site was the pocket park on Woodrow Wilson across from the Children’s Hospital. The project stalled after the equipment was procured during the COVID emergency. The equipment has been in storage since2019. GBFproposed relocating the fitness court to Belhaven Heights Park to link the park to the Museum Trail and to add to the neighborhood’s outdoor recreational assets. GBF facilitated a letter-writing campaign, after which the City of Jackson agreed to relocate the project. We owe a huge thanks to our Ward Seven Council woman Virgi Lindsay for her leadership in this effort! GBF’s CID committee provided a design for the court in the Belhaven Heights Park as well as funding to construct the concrete pad for the equipment.The new Keith Haring Fitness Court at Belhaven Heights Park allows users to leverage their own body weight to get a complete workout using seven stations in just seven minutes. Created for people aged 14 and over and with all abilities in mind, the workouts are adaptable for all fitness levels, allowing participants to move at their own pace. The location at Belhaven Heights Park offers a significant tie-in with the existing outdoor recreational amenities in Greater Belhaven, including a direct physical connection to the Museum Trail and close proximity to the Belhaven Mountain Biking Trails, and will energize the park as a community center.
