KEARNEY, Neb. — There’s a new signature piece of art in the Merryman Performing Arts Center… and it’s as uniquely Nebraskan as its creator and its location.

"Tumbleweed Symphony" is now hanging in the grand lobby of the Kearney venue. Omaha artist Les Bruning grew up in towns across central and western Nebraska and remembers one constant feature: the relentless blowing wind.

“One of the things that interests me about wind is tumbleweeds because that becomes a personification of wind,” Bruning said.

Staff at Merryman told him it needs to be suspended and left Bruning room for creativity.

“If it’s hanging, it’s gotta be lighter than it might be if it was sitting on the ground," Bruning said. "So what it did, it allowed me to do a lot more delicate things than I typically do.”

The rings are 10 feet in diameter, the central tumbleweed is 18 inches across and the piece weighs less than 200 pounds. An electric winch raises and lowers the mobile.

The initial review?

“Oh I think it’s wonderful. This is just grand.”

Audrey Kauders is the former executive director of the Museum of Nebraska Art and helped connect the Merryman with Bruning.

“It’s a kinetic sculpture, too. How fabulous is that? With people coming in and out, the doors opening and closing and just the general airflow within a building and a space, it will probably always be moving,” Kauders said.

Central Elementary students watched as it went up. Kearney High students, including Sophia Strong and Lexi Thiele, helped assemble it.

“I didn’t really think about how much of the process we were going to participate in, but we ended up doing a lot of it and helping," Strong said. "I really like that we were able to break it down and figure out how to put it back together.”

“I’m really happy to be here. It’s a really fun experience, like once in a lifetime,” Thiele said. “I think it looks really good. It’s a lot different from what the small model was, but it’s really good to see it in person.”

Bruning says people will experience "Tumbleweed Symphony" differently every time they see it.

“If they come in here at night or in the morning, it’s always changing," Bruning said. "That’s the nice thing about sculpture, it’s not static on a wall somewhere, it’s always part of the environment you live in.”

Funding for the project was provided by the Mid-America Arts Alliance and Scott and Rochelle Morris of Kearney.