HOOPcycle Debuts With a Free Play Session

Mobile art installation HOOPcycle, is bringing basketball’s Mesoamerican roots to the forefront, with its North America debut at the National Public Housing Museum, 919 S. Ada St from 3-5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The mobile basketball hoop by artist Marisa Morán Jahn and architect Rafi Segal, explores the intersections of recreational equity, cultural heritage, and public space. Drawing inspiration from both contemporary basketball and its ancient pre-Columbian ancestor, HOOPcycle combines a reinterpreted vertical hoop with a tricycle-mounted design, offering a reimagined sports experience that challenges norms and unites communities through play. The piece is accompanied by OOPS, a geometric ground mural that’s free and open to the public. They were designed with feedback from public housing residents. Both celebrate street games and their role in bringing people together to play. 

“HOOPcycle invites people to interact, make up their own rules, and embrace a broad notion of play and belonging,” says Marisa Morán Jahn, a 2022-23 Artist as Instigator at the National Public Housing Museum,Senior Researcher at MIT, and 2023 grantee of the Joyce Awards who provided major funding to create these artworks. “My memories of living in public housing as an adult are  filled with the laughter and joy of communal play—something I hope HOOPcycle helps communities recapture, free from stereotypes and exclusion.” 

HOOPcycle is designed to spark a dialogue around equity, space, and community-building as it travels to neighborhoods nationwide. This innovative installation invites people of all ages to rethink and reclaim public spaces, transforming streets and common areas into inclusive zones for gathering, play, and cross-cultural connection. 

Rafi Segal, architect and MIT professor, sees HOOPcycle as a way to rekindle urban street culture and civic engagement. “Suburbanization and disinvestment have fragmented our cities, contributing to a crisis of loneliness and loss of public gathering spaces,” says Segal. “By bringing play back to urban streets, HOOPcycle reclaims these spaces for connection.”

Located at 919 South Ada Street, the National Public Housing Museum is built on the former site of the Jane Addams Homes, Chicago’s first federal housing project. It is the first museum in the United States dedicated to telling the stories and sharing the history of public housing in this country. It will open to the public in early 2025. Equipment for the event is provided by Wilson Basketball.