Dix Park Conservancy Brings a Playable Basketball Tree to Dix Park

Alexandre Arrechea's Orange Functional arrives in Flowers Field this month 

RALEIGH, N.C. (Oct 1, 2026) – Bring your jump shot: Dix Park's newest public artwork is made to be played. Dix Park Conservancy today announced that Orange Functional, a sculpture by Cuban-born artist Alexandre Arrechea, will be installed in Flowers Field near the newly-opened Cottage Coffee and Park Bar and will open with a celebration on Wednesday, Oct. 7. 

The painted steel sculpture takes the shape of a tree that stands 23 feet tall. Its bright orange branches end in 23 regulation-size basketball hoops that invite people to pick up a basketball, choose a target and shoot their shot. Basketballs will be available on site for anyone to pick up and play (while supplies last). 

The opening celebration will run from 6 to 8 p.m., beginning at the sculpture and followed by a reception at the Flowers Cottage. Arrechea will be on site, and the first shots will go to special guests from the NCSU men's and women's basketball teams and youth from the Boys and Girls Club and Raleigh Parks and Recreation. The event is free and open to the public.

"Dix Park is a park for everyone, and play is part of that promise," said Kate Pearce, president and CEO of Dix Park Conservancy. "The Conservancy has worked hard to bring world-class public art to this park, and Orange Functional is a great example of what that looks like here. It's a serious work by an internationally recognized artist, and it also happens to be a lot of fun." 

Arrechea first imagined the basketball tree in a watercolor. Early versions of the sculpture were shown in museums where visitors couldn't touch them, and after seeing how much people wanted to play, he redesigned the sculpture to be fully functional. Art Omi, a sculpture and architecture park in Ghent, N.Y., commissioned the first playable version in 2022. Another Orange Functional stands at the entrance to Biidaasige Park in Toronto as part of the Lassonde Art Trail, and one was installed at the San Antonio Spurs practice facility in 2023. 

For Arrechea, the work is about choice, agency, responsibility and the outcomes of every decision we make. 

"You stand under the tree and see all these hoops, but you can only shoot at one," said Arrechea. "You have to choose, and you decide how difficult that choice will be. Life asks the same of us. That experience should be open to everyone, not only to people who walk into a museum. In a public park like Dix Park, anyone can step up to the tree, pick a hoop and make that choice for themselves." 

Born in Trinidad, Cuba, Arrechea co-founded the influential Cuban collective Los Carpinteros before launching his solo career. His public works include No Limits (2013) along Park Avenue in New York City, and his work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, the New Museum and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana.