The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi will be filled with air and history this summer as it features the 7 Wonders of the World balloon exhibit. The exhibit began June 1 and runs through Sept. 5.
Each week three balloon artists will build one of the seven ancient and seven modern wonders of the world.
Jeremy Telford, BYU alumnus and balloon artist, said they will build one wonder while they exhibit another. Each wonder is on display for one week.
“I hope when [people] come they will first say, ‘Wow!’ and then want to learn about this historic structure,” Telford said.
Additionally, to inspire kids to design and create sparks of creativity the exhibit includes tables and blocks where kids can build and design.
In conjunction with this exhibit, Thanksgiving Point is hosting a world-record-breaking attempt for the largest balloon modeling structure by an individual during founder’s week, July 20–25, at Thanksgiving Point.
Currently the world record stands for a spider that was 43 feet long and 20 inches wide. Telford is building a 50-foot-long, 25-foot-tall Dachshund dog out of 7,000–8,000 thousand pink balloons.
Telford’s career in balloon entertainment started as a way to get him through school at BYU. His brother-in-law taught him to make restaurant animals.
“I loved it too much to stop, so I started my own business,” Telford said.
Telford has since performed around the world in locations from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Dubai. His creations have been featured in several magazines as well as on television and radio shows. Telford is currently featured in a two-page spread in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Dare to Look.” According to him, some of his greatest creations are the six- to seven-foot sculptures he makes for his children on their birthday.
In 2008, Thanksgiving Point featured a T-Rex creation made by Telford and Heather Lewis, one of the other artists building the seven wonders.
Telford said it takes about two months to design the creations, and 95 percent of the time everything goes according to plan; however, the last 5 percent requires that they work on the fly. By the end of most days, Telford said, his brain hurts the most and his fingers are calloused.
