Winners have been announced for CanstructionSWVA 2019, a creative and competitive event featuring massive sculptures built entirely from cans of food, held at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke.
A total of 21,685 pounds of food was collected from the sculptures and public donations. That will provide more than 18,000 meals for Southwest Virginia’s hungry.
This year, six teams from across the region—including architecture, engineering and design firms, along with public schools and a bank — committed their time and talents to design and build cansculptures.
Returning participants include AECOM, Roanoke County Public Schools – Burton Center for Arts and Tech, Roanoke City Public Schools – Forest Park Academy and SFCS. New to the competition this year are Burns & McDonnell, and a combined team from Wells Fargo and Clark Nexsen.
Winning two awards, “Best Meal” and “Best Original Design” was SFCS with their sculpture “Together we CAN Avenge Hunger.” Their sculpture, composed of 3,364 cans, took on a superhero theme, integrating the characters into a larger-than-life pinball machine.
Also winning two awards, “Best Use of Labels” and “Most Cans” was the combined Wells Fargo/Clark Nexsen team with their sculpture “We’re a CAN-DO City.” Their sculpture was composed of 8,354 cans and showcased the downtown Roanoke skyline, including the iconic Roanoke Star.
Winning the Structural Ingenuity award was Burns & McDonnell with their sculpture, “Canoramic Roanoke.” Their panoramic sculpture was made up of 4,400 cans and showcased regional outdoor beauty including the view from the McAfee’s Knob trailhead area.
The “People’s Choice” award went to the Wells Fargo/Clark Nexsen team. For every donation (cans or cash), the public was able to cast votes during the exhibit to benefit Feeding America Southwest Virginia and Taubman Museum of Art.
When the exhibit closed on Sunday, March 17 all the cansculptures were dismantled and all cans went directly to the Feeding America Southwest Virginia food bank for distribution to people throughout our region facing hunger.
Canstruction SWVA thanks presenting sponsor Kroger for their support. Canstruction SWVA also thanks sponsors AIA Blue Ridge and the City of Roanoke, as well as in-kind contributors McAlister’s Deli and Boyd Pearman Photography.
