Chapungu Sculpture Park

The rolling plains of Colorado may not be where you’d expect to see a vast collection of Zimbabwean art, although at Chapungu Sculpture Park at Centerra, located in Loveland, you’ll find just that. The park, about 50 miles north of Denver and just south of Fort Collins, covers 26 acres and features 82 stone sculptures that depict different elements of the African country’s familial traditions. 

The park’s name translates to “Great Spirit Bird,” a reference to the Bateleur eagle, significant in Zimbabwean culture, as the raptor is thought to be a protector and a bringer of important messages. Each of the sculptures is part of the Shona sculpture movement, which gained global popularity in the 1960s—though it had been practiced in the country for centuries. The art is characterized by a semi-abstract style, human faces, and familial themes. The late English artist Frank McEwen, founding director of what’s now the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, propelled the Shona movement in the ’60s and ’70s, and many of Chapungu’s pieces are from this era.  

Once you enter Chapungu, take one of the 11 concrete and gravel walking paths to weave your way through the artwork and surrounding gardens. The artworks are all handcarved from dense, uniform stone such as Serpentine, with some weighing as much as 4 tons. The sculptures fall into eight themes, including the Role of Women, the Spirit World, the Children, and the Elders.

In addition to the sculptures, you’ll be surrounded by 2,900 types of native shrubs and trees, as well as 7,000 types of ornamental grasses. Wildlife abounds—you may see deer, geese, foxes and frogs on a visit to Chapungu. 

So how did these sculptures end up in Loveland, Colorado? Loveland is known in the arts world for the largest juried sculpture show in America, and also respected globally for its brass sculpture foundries. So it’s not surprising that when the late South African art collector Roy Guthrie, who founded a Chapungu sculpture park in Harare, Zimbabwe, sought to support its stone sculptors and bring the Shona movement to a wider audience, he connected with the local Loveland arts council. After a developer donated land for the park, it opened to the public in 2007.

The park has joined the rest of Loveland’s rich artistic reputation as a home to galleries and no shortage of public art installations.