The way the RedBall bounces: All the places the art installation will appear countywide

Two months ago, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History announced that the county would have an unusual visitor this summer — an enormous inflatable red ball, which would be placed at various sites for artistic contemplation, selfie opportunities, and plain old fun.

The original announcement noted the wandering art installation would arrive in town in June, though it might take some time to fully understand why. However, we now know for certain about another question: where.

The 15-foot RedBall (as it’s formally titled) is the work of Brooklyn-based visual artist Kurt Perschke who has brought it to cities around the world for two decades.

On Tuesday, June 8, RedBall makes its local debut at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and will alight in a different location each day for the next six days thusly:

“Part of the journey is people taking more of an awareness of their environment with a sense of wonder and surprise,” said the artist Perschke in a phone interview in March when the project was first announced. “The piece is funny. It takes on a sense of whimsy.

“What happens is that once people see how the piece moves through the city and how it operates, they begin to have ideas. They’ll tell staff, ‘Oh, you should bring it to X.’ That to me is a profound moment, when they’re looking at their own community through the lens of the piece.

Both Perschke and the MAH will be following RedBall on social media to record and encourage public interaction with the artwork. For more information, go to the MAH website.