Journeys of Imagination: Playful Adventures on the Park
Journeys of Imagination: Playful Adventures on the Park
Kids spend 80% of their time outside of school, but cities often lack opportunities for play and informal learning outside the classroom. To close this gap, KABOOM! and the William Penn Foundation created the Play Everywhere Philly Challenge to support organizations looking to build playful learning opportunities in unexpected, but everyday spaces.
In 2024, Friends of Rail Park was awarded a Play Everywhere Philly Grant to bring a series of community-designed playful learning opportunities to the Rail Park in partnership with Tiny WPA, FACTS Charter School, Asian Americans United. With the support of Playful Learning Landscapes and WatchDog, the project includes playful learning and literacy opportunities in designs that reflect the community.
The development of the project centered around a community-led design process with students at FACTS Charter School and Asian Americans United’s summer programs. Youth were led through design challenges to imagine what their ideal play environment would be and how they would like their community reflected. From these iterations, Tiny WPA was able to design and fabricate play materials and prompts that will encourage young people to explore, imagine, and create their own adventures based on what they see and their own experiences.
In discussions with the youth, the tale of the Monkey King was reiterated as an important tale and a common thread for those in the community. When exploring the play area, we encourage you to learn more about the Monkey King and imagine yourself with the ability to transform into different animals. What would be your power? What would you look like?
Journeys of Imagination: Playful Adventures on the Park will debut at The Block Party on September 7th and will be on Phase One throughout Fall 2024. Exploration, interaction, and playing with the various parts of the installation is strongly encouraged!
“In Chinese mythology, Sun Wukong (孫悟空), also known as the Monkey King, is a trickster god who plays a central role in Wu Cheng’en’s adventure novel Journey to the West.
Wukong is blessed with unmatched superhuman strength and the ability to transform into 72 different animals and objects. Each of his hairs have transformative powers, and he can magically manipulate wind, water and fire as well. Characterized by his short temper, impatience and proclivity towards anger, Sun Wukong is one of the most important and beloved literary figures in Chinese culture.”
