Grants
Project Name: Outdoor Musical Instruments
Project Location: Village of Marblehead
Marblehead’s James Park added a new feature in 2023 – a sensory garden featuring outdoor musical instruments purchased with a grant from the Park District of Ottawa County. The Park District provided $6,604.00 of
the $13,209.00 cost of the instruments with the Village matching the balance.
A sensory garden provides visitors with a wide variety of opportunities to engage the five basic senses of sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. The focal point in the James Park Garden is the nature-inspired musical instruments with their bright colors and rich sounds. The outdoor instruments include musical mushrooms tuned to the pentatonic C major scale, a group of three harmony bells in complementary chords of D, E and A minor, and a
sunflower petal drum with a Pygmy scale that provides a gentle and sweet sound. The outdoor instruments are the creation of Percussion Play Limited and were installed by Snider Recreation.
In addition to the musical instruments, other sensory features include a pollinator garden planted with native flowers and herbs that have hosted bees and butterflies throughout the summer, large limestone rocks donated by Holcim’s Marblehead quarry, and a whimsical, musical-themed mural currently in progress by local artist Mallory Kukay.
