Cabinet of Curiosity

CHICAGO – Cabinet of Curiosity, in collaboration with lead partner Working Bikes, presents Pedal Powered Playground, May 18 – August 10. Cabinet of Curiosityenters 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).