NewPlayground Inspired Exhibition
Last year Steve Snyder, the Fleet Science Center’s CEO, visited his childhood elementary school for the first time in many years. “One look at the playground and I remembered everything, all the imaginative games we made up and things I learned playing on that slide and those monkey-bars” recalled Snyder. “I thought, wouldn’t it be great to use playground elements to inspire imagination and nostalgia?”
The Fleet’s creative team ran with the idea and developed Pause|Playfeaturing more than a dozen experiences, each designed to evoke childhood memories. The bilingual exhibit, which will be open through September 2, is no ordinary playground. There is a scientific twist to enhance every activity in this innovative and fascinating new exhibition that takes over two of the Fleet’s upstairs galleries.
A slide invites visitors to climb up and plunge down but unlike other slides, this slide clocks your speed. Adults and kids alike can explore different scientific concepts through a whirling merry-go-round, a set of interconnected seesaws, augmented-reality sandboxes and a pool filled with balls. Visitors can test their perception and aim with the basketball hoops, ride a tricycle with square wheels and play a glowing game of hopscotch.
Generously funded in part by The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, Pause|Playis the first exhibition of this magnitude developed by the Fleet in 20 years. “We strive to be innovative with our approach to how we share science,” Ashanti Davis, Exhibit Project Supervisor at the Fleet Science Center shared with Giving Back Magazine. “Pause|Playis an example of the Fleet’s capacity to design relevant experiences for science enthusiasts of all ages.”
Playing is not only enjoyable, it also has cognitive, social, emotional and health benefits for every age. Pause|Playinvites people of all ages to, as one sign says, “Play Now. Adult Later.”
