Look Down! Sidewalk Surprises are popping up all around town

Look down. The sidewalk just got a little less pedestrian—and a lot more joyful.

In  these times of great stress and isolation, creative, healing play is especially important.

In that spirit Madison Children’s Museum launched Sidewalk Surprises today, in collaboration with the city of Madison. 

This community-wide exhibit is enlivening city sidewalks with playful, whimsical, cross-cultural hopscotch challenges, encouraging movement and physical activity. Using dozens of game patterns from around the world, MCM is infusing physical play with citywide math and cultural learning.

Museum staff and local artists are covering sidewalks across Madison and beyond  with hundreds of these temporary hopscotch courses, mazes, and labyrinths. Chalk artists are working throughout the week and will complete the courses by Friday, June 26. The spray chalk will last several weeks, depending on the weather, giving many children a chance to enjoy them.

These solo sidewalk games encourage walking—and skipping, hopping, and jumping—through spaces, rather than gathering. The games support social distancing as they create joy. This is especially important since many of children’s most beloved places in the community are currently closed—Madison Children’s Museum among them.  

Based on the book Hopscotch Around the World (Mary Lankford), the hopscotch games support cultural and math learning, spatial awareness, small and gross motor skills,  and dexterity. They will be spread across the city’s  many, diverse neighborhoods and enhanced by online learning resources.

Over thirty different kinds of sidewalk games and activities will be represented. As a group, they include multi-cultural themes, games for younger children, and courses that can be accessed by those with different abilities, including wheelchair users.

• 

• 

• 

An online gallery and map of game locations will be posted at the end of June.

Since closing in mid March, Madison Children’s Museum has produced activity kits and online programs through MCM at Home—that programming continues, but now MCM Roadshow takes center stage. MCM Roadshow is a series of temporary, popup play experiences throughout our community. Sidewalk Surprises is first in the series.

“Kids’ need for open-ended, creative play hasn’t changed. But the opportunities for those rich play experiences have diminished,” says Brenda Baker, director of exhibits for the museum. “We know that plenty of good online resources for kids have sprung up during the pandemic. But parents and caregivers are looking for more opportunities for their kids to play outside. Using sidewalks as our canvas, I think we’ve found a way to recreate some of the museum experience in unexpected places—where kids will practically trip over these invitations to play, move, and learn.”

MCM is partnering with the City of Madison and collaborating with surrounding municipalities, neighborhood centers, neighborhood associations, and local artists. In an attempt to help artists affected by the pandemic, the museum has worked with Karin Wolf, city arts administrator, to enlist community artists. Some of those participating were also involved in the city’s recent downtown mural project. 

MCM staff has worked within the City of Madison’s social distancing and sidewalk marking guidelines to ensure safety.

“These playful games and activities, spread throughout the city of Madison, are the work the museum does best—creating joyful, active, play-based learning experiences for our community’s children that reinforce critical educational concepts,” says Baker.

Sidewalk Surprises is a Madison Children’s Museum Roadshow Project, creating temporary public art in collaboration with the City of Madison. The project is joyfully made possible by Madison Community Foundation and Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation. 

Sidewalk Surprises is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding from Alliant Energy Foundation, American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation, US Bank Foundation, Madison Arts Commission, Veridian Homes, Dane Arts, American Transmission Company, and Madison South Rotary.