Brava is the first and only roller coaster located inside an art museum.
Located at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, this ridable attraction is the focal
point of artist EJ Hill’s Brake Run Helix exhibit.
Just don’t expect to show up without a reservation and ride it though.
In this video, I explain just how you ride it and review the experience itself.
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) opened in 1999.
It is one of the largest museums in the world for contemporary art.
The complex is located in a former factory building and it’s located in North Adams.
If you’re unfamiliar with this town, as I was even as a native Bay Stater, it is located
in the northwest corner of Massachusetts in the Berkshire Mountains.
Or if you’re using amusement parks as points of reference, this museum is 1.5 hours from
either Six Flags New England or the Great Escape.
Then you have two mountain coasters a half hour away, including Thunderbolt at the Berkshire
East Resort.
That is one of the best installations out there.
But back to Brava.
Brake Run Helix is from the creative mind of EJ Hill, an artist who also happens to
be a roller coaster enthusiast.
The exhibit will run from November 2022 through January 2024.
It includes paintings, wooden structures resembling roller coasters, and most impressively a ridable
coaster in Brava.
This ride was supplied by Skyline Attractions.
The coaster uses the same track as their new P’Sghetti Bowl coasters.
It’s weld-free and super smooth.
But it is classified differently since it uses different supports, mechanics, and trains.
This is a hybrid coaster.
It has pink steel track and simplistic wooden supports.
The latter fit in with the aesthetic of the rest of the exhibit.
The P’Sghetti bowl coasters will usually have all-steel supports.
Brava also features a single person car that weighs roughly 500 lbs.
Compare that to the P’Sghetti Bowl coasters that will have longer trains seating riders
side-by-side.
Brava is also operated much differently.
You board the coaster on the third floor of the museum.
An employee then pushes the train over the first drop.
The rest of the layout takes place on the second floor.
Riders won’t experience a full circuit though.
You don’t have enough momentum to make it back up to the 3rd floor, so you rock to a
stop at the bottom.
After the rider has disembarked, the employees winch the train back to the top for the next
guest.
Brava can only accommodate 1 rider per hour.
So over the course of this 15 month exhibition, roughly 1800 riders total will get to experience
this coaster.
For comparison, some B&M hypers can chew through that many guests in just one hour.
While it is mechanically possible for the ride to handle more people per hour, the museum
and artist have made the conscious choice to limit riders.
This is for a few reasons.
One, EJ Hill wants each coaster ride to be special.
He wants it to feel like a performance.
Two, the artist wants guests to be able to walk right next to the attraction.
Remember, this isn’t just a coaster.
It’s a piece of art.
So for much of the day, the gates are open and guests can get closer to Brava than any
other coaster out there.
It feels wrong as a coaster enthusiast to be this close to a ride.
5 or so minutes after the hour, the employees close off the area.
This is so they can winch the car back up to the third floor.
This process originally took 10 minutes, but the current motor can pull the car atop the
lift in roughly 2-3 minutes.
Then 10-15 minutes after the hour, the lone rider gets to experience their solo ride on
Brava.
And it will be to much fanfare.
Onlookers will watch in awe.
And the employees encourage everyone to clap at its conclusion.
Again, this is viewed as a performance.
This will be an extremely elusive coaster credit.
Because of its low throughput, the coaster doesn’t have a traditional queue.
You need to reserve the ride in advance, typically weeks out.
Potential riders need to go to the Mass MoCA website.
You need to select a specific date and time.
The museum releases the schedule in monthlong chunks.
Mass MoCA members get first access.
They swallowed up most spots in the ride’s first month.
But myself and several other coaster enthusiasts were able to secure spots in the second month
by checking the calendar daily until we saw availability.
Is it tedious?
Yes.
But persistence paid off.
Reservations are free.You just need to purchase museum admission for the day you visit.
Tickets cost $20 for adults as of 2022.
You can purchase these at the box office the day of, but you can expedite your entry by
purchasing a timed ticket in advance.
It also is worth noting riders must be at least 40 inches tall and less than 300 lbs.
These two restrictions make sense.
The one that shocked me was that guests must be at least 15 years of age.
I was surprised kids weren’t allowed, especially given the scale and intensity of this coaster.
But that may be due to the single rider nature of the coaster.
A lot of coasters allow kids to ride if they’re with a supervising companion.
Obviously, that’s not possible here with just one rider total.
When it’s your turn to ride, you should report to the ride 15 minutes in advance of
your ride time.
As mentioned earlier, you board on the third floor.
You’re hidden behind a velvet curtain, again tying into the idea that you’re a performer.
You then need to read the safety instructions under the employee’s supervision.
Last but not least, before hopping in the vehicle, you need to have a signed waiver.
You can either complete this online when you book your time or complete it the day-of in-person.
When you board the car, you won’t find a lap bar.
Instead, you just have a cushioned seat and a seatbelt.
There is a static grab bar in front of you though.
While there is no official max height, it is worth noting the vehicles aren’t overly
accommodating to guests with long legs.
I’m 5’9 and my legs were close to hitting the front of the car.
The attendant said some taller guests have had to ride with their legs spread sideways.
Once you’re secured, the employees make sure the area is clear of guests and gated
off.
The employees open the gate and remove the safety sword keeping your car in place.
You are then pushed over the edge and down the drop.
It’s just 12 feet or 3.5 meters tall.
That’s on par with most kiddie coasters.
But this drop has a bit more going for it.
For one, you have a little speed into it thanks to the push.
Two, it’s shockingly steep for a drop of this size.
It’s more reminiscent of a sharp plunge on a log flume than a coaster.
No airtime, but the drop has some zip to it.
Now the ride is advertised as having a top speed of 30 mph or 48 kph.
I find that figure a bit suspect given the overall height, but whatever.
You then head up a sizable hill- by this ride’s standards- and navigate a helix.
Riders can pose towards the spectators at the apex.
Then you undulate as you spiral back down to the ground.
It’s a pretty tame helix, but that’s not too surprising given the ride’s scale.
You then head towards a very steep hill that leads back to the third floor.
But you only make it about halfway up the hill.
You stall out.
And this moment induces some weightlessness.
It’s probably the best spot on the ride for forces/sensations.
You then roll backwards over a brake pad that takes away a good chunk of your speed.
You then make it partway up the helix.
Due to the banking and lack of speed, you actually get some lateral hangtime here.
I honestly think the helix is more exciting at this point than it was on the initial pass.
You then head over the brake pad, losing even more speed.
You make it maybe a foot up the final hill, roll over the brake pad one last time, and
come to a stop.
Employees then encourage the rider and all the spectators to clap since your performance
is over.
You are then let off the ride, ending the experience.
The ride only has 260 feet or 79 meters of track, but it feels quite a bit longer because
of the multi-pass section at the end.
This is a new track design from Skyline, so there were some questions how smoothly it
would ride.
Especially after the roughness on their skywarp models.
Fortunately this ride is exceptionally smooth.
It feels like an RMC I-Box.
The weld-free track works wonders here.
So what would I rate Brava?
The coaster itself is probably a 6.
It’s a decent ride, especially considering how little track it contains.
This definitely a step-up from most kiddie coasters.
That initial drop has more power and the shuttle bit towards the end adds some extra thrills.
And it is an very comfortable attraction.
But I can’t rate the coaster itself any higher.
Most family coasters offer a more complete ride.
But there are three additional aspects where this ride deserves acclaim.
One, it’s a piece of art.
It’s the focal point of a full-fledged exhibit.
You have some additional wood structures and paintings making up the exhibit.
Those should not be missed as well if you’re already there.
Two, it was an outside-the-box location for a coaster and it may encourage other non-conventional
locations into adding one.
With how smooth it rides, I’m excited to see this track again on P’Sghetti bowl coasters.
It should be a gamechanger for the kiddie and junior coaster industry.
So do I recommend going out to experience Brava?
If you’re in the area, sure.
It is a rare credit and it doesn’t ride like any other coaster out there.
However, I wouldn’t make a super long trek for this attraction…unless you are a big
art fan.
My fiancee and I aren’t the biggest art fans, but Mass MoCA is beloved by fans of
contemporary art.
So if you’re more artsy than us, definitely check that place out.
Art fans could easily spend an entire day here with how expansive this museum is.
It is worth noting there are several unique experiences that need to be booked in advance.
Most can be booked a day out.
But because Brava’s capacity is so low, that one will likely need to be booked weeks
in advance.
Just keep checking if you’re heart is set on riding it.
If you are a coaster enthusiast more than an art fan, I would try to pair this place
with the area’s mountain coasters or one of the nearby Six Flags parks.
The final thing I want to touch on is the coaster’s plans once the exhibit concludes
in January 2024.
The employees said the owner wants Brava to live on, specifically in a ridable form.
They said the track is designed for much greater use than it will get at Mass MoCA.
It can not only accommodate more cycles, but it can support a 4-car train.
So not sure if it will find its way to another park or some sort of museum, but until then,
you have just over a year to get out to western Massachusetts to experience this rare ride.
So those are my thoughts on Brava, the world’s only coaster in an art museum.
What are your thoughts on this unique coaster?
Do you plan to get out to ride it?
Let me know down in the comments.
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