Cabinet of Curiosity, in collaboration with lead partner Working Bikes, presents Pedal Powered Playground, May 18 - August 10. Cabinet of Curiosity enters their second year of unique, outdoor, human-powered spectacle celebrations for the diverse communities of Chicago. Additional collaborators include the Chicago Park District, the Climate Action Museum, the School of the Art Institute, The Loop Alliance, and the Uptown Chamber of Commerce. For more information visit www.cocechicago.com.
The event, devised by Frank Maugeri and a dozen students from Cabinet’s paid training program The School of Celebration, includes multiple bug- and beast-inspired sculptures containing fans blowing pinwheels, record players playing vinyl albums, and machines emitting showers of bubbles, all which are powered by audience members on transformed exercise bicycles. Each event includes a mechanical engineering workshop and mechanism building station where participants will be invited to add their creation to one of the large sculptures; collectively creating a totem of communal expression. Additionally, each participant may take home a free coloring comic book that examines the necessity of global sustainability, healthy exercise, conscious eating, alternative forms of power, and the enormous value and respect of bugs and creatures from the natural and imagined world. Expect an uncanny garden of oddities and surprises.
“Our hope is that Cabinet continues to lead a resourceful, collectively created model of whimsical events inspired by our STEAMM2. STEAMM2 includes science, technology, engineering and math plus our unique addition of mythology into outdoor celebratory collaborative events. Our first human powered experiment provided us the knowledge to continue developing interactive immersive outdoor events with our many cultural, community partners and neighborhood authors,” said Cabinet Founder and Artistic Director Frank Maugeri and Executive Director Alexandra Plattos Sulack in a joint statement.
Pedal Powered Playground’s events include:
Pedal Powered Preview (in partnership with the Redline Services, Schoolhouse Kitchen and Studio, and the Uptown Chamber of Commerce)
Winthrop Family Garden, 4628 N. Winthrop Ave.
Saturday, May 18 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
FREE
Participants will enjoy the premier of one 10-foot-tall beast and three bikes powering whimsical contraptions along with outdoor bread making hosted by partner Schoolhouse Kitchen and Studio, two creation stations, and a daytime fire show presented by Redline Services.
Pedal Powered Picnic - An Outdoor Benefit
3636 Iron St.
Saturday, June 29 from 12 - 7 p.m.
$50
An outdoor benefit to support Cabinet of Curiosity’s free summer programming. Enjoy picnic foods, live grilling, beer, soda, all the elements of 2024’s Pedal Powered Playground-3 enormous interactive sculptures, multiple bikes that power whimsical devices, an engineering workshop, a short puppet show and a free coloring book along with a live solo musical performance by Michelle Billingsley from 3 - 4 p.m., and more. Tickets go on sale May 6 and can be purchased at cocechicago.com.
Sundays on State Street
175 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601
Saturday, July 13 from 11 - 6 p.m.
FREE
Cabinet of Curiosity’s Pedal Powered Playground and Engineering Workshop join other cultural organizations at this summer’s Sundays on State.
Marquette Park
6743 S Kedzie Ave, Chicago IL 60629
Saturday, August 3 from 1:30 - 3 p.m.
FREE
All the elements of 2024’s Pedal Powered Playground, including 3 enormous interactive sculptures, multiple bikes that power whimsical devices, an engineering workshop, a short puppet show, and a free coloring book activate the gorgeous lagoon of the serene Marquette Park.
Boler Park
3601 W. Arthington St.
Saturday, August 10 from 1:30 - 3 p.m.
FREE
All the elements of 2024’s Pedal Powered Playground, including 3 enormous interactive sculptures, multiple bikes that power whimsical devices, an engineering workshop, a short puppet show, and a free coloring book activate the wonderful Boler Park.
The primary designers for Pedal Powered Playground include Nana Asabere, Solomon Eloi, Myles Teaque, Ivy Waegel (event coordinator/site managers and instructors); Qixin Chen (pinwheel engineer); Lily Gregoire (comic book artist); Shiyan Li (lead carpenter/sculpture maker); Frank Maugeri (artistic director/lead designer); William Perry (bicycle technical director); and Camryn Smith (lead sculptural designer, and painter).
ABOUT CABINET OF CURIOSITY
Cabinet of Curiosity (Cabinet) expertise and mission lies in interactivity, immersion, ritual composition, community building, and collaboration between artists and community members of various skill levels and mediums. Cabinet of Curiosity focuses on creating new types of experiences, gatherings, ceremonies, and rituals which promote community and interactivity amongst people who may not normally mix. Cabinet is composed of diverse project-by-project collectives who authentically collaborate on original celebrations and productions. Cabinet uses sophisticated puppetry and handmade devices to develop unique interactive experiences, productions, and events. The company’s intention is to support multicultural professionals in the field of theater, visual arts, dance, sculpture, and music, while mindfully training high school and college age apprentices to become the future creators of new meaningful rituals. All the objects and devices created by Cabinet are engineered to expose their mechanical operations, so they are simultaneously educational, informative, and magical. We embrace commissions which require unique elements of ritual, ceremony, procession, and pageantry. These commissions create funding that establishes an innovative revenue stream, reducing the responsibility of sustainability from the board, audience, and foundations, trains apprentices through a unique scholarship apparatus, builds community, funds our free and greatly discounted public work. We are committed to social engagement — both grand and intimate. Cabinet’s purpose is to promote curiosity, community, and culture.
Cabinet of Curiosity, in collaboration with lead partner Working Bikes presents Pedal Powered Playground, May 18 - August 10. For more information visit https://www.cocechicago.com/.