Freshly painted basketball court honors the late Native American artist Oscar Howe

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A lot of city parks have basketball courts for kids to play on, but there’s one in Burke that has a fresh new look.

It was unveiled Thursday night during a ceremony and as you’re about to see, it’s really special due to its unique design that honors a famous South Dakota Artist.

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When you mix paint with sand and a lot of hard work, you’re going to get a masterpiece; only this artwork is being painted on a basketball court canvas.

Don: It’s a huge undertaking isn’t Kate?

Kate: It is, yes it is and you know artists are used to doing scary things and this was right on the path of doing something scary.

Kate Witt, who is an art teacher in Burke, reached out to a non-profit called ‘Project Backboards’ that specializes in artwork like this.

‘Project Backboard’ helped guide Witt through the process of mixing the paint, water and sand, that she’s never used before, in order to honor South Dakota Native American Artist Oscar Howe.

“I know about painting murals, I’ve been doing that for a few years, but to paint a mural that’s on the ground with a product that has sand and water and this base and tint, we were mixing in these huge trash cans it was a whole different deal,” Witt said.

Don: Why Oscar Howe?

Kate: He’s really a unique artist who took Native American ideas with traditional art, but put a real nice modern spin on it and I’m a huge fan of modern art and I really appreciate that about him.

Kelsea Sutton, who is an attorney, helped write the grant to pay for it.

“It’s incredible and ‘Project Backboard’ they really believe that public art makes communities safer and stronger and better critical thinkers about their environments and these beautiful courts get families and kids out to play on them and that’s exactly how you feel when you are at the court, you just want to get on it,” Sutton said.

Witt says she wants to play on the court, but even if she doesn’t, she’s already scored a lot of points with the community.

“I thought it was good, because I’ve never used this product before, when you don’t have any history with something you’re ordering these colors from the internet from a light generated color that’s all really tricky, but I was very pleased and very happy when it was done,” Witt said.

The entire project cost just under $30,000.