Playful Boston
Playful Boston is a declarative hypothesis on the civic power of play(fulness) and a coordinated, citywide effort to incorporate and support playful approaches to civic life in untraditional spaces. It includes a theory of change as well as a portfolio of pilot projects for experimenting with the hypothesis, including: Play Around the City and Play Around the Snowy City.
Role
Program Director
Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics,
City of Boston
Partners
Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity
Mayor’s Education Cabinet
Boston Children’s Museum
Playworks New England
Project Timeline
Nov, 2017 - May, 2018
Incorporation of play into a standard civic engagement event.
Play Around the City intervention sites, located in 4 Boston neighborhoods, which incorporated playful elements at high density public school bus stops.
Hypothesis
Playful approaches, events, and spaces across the City encourage positive community interactions. Embracing playfulness enables a more connected, resourceful, and resilient Boston.
Play is a safe way to test boundaries and learn to engage in and resolve conflict successfully. It facilitates problem solving, creative thinking, and resilience. It can be a fun way to get exercise. And, it can ignite imaginations, collaborations, and conversations.
Approach
A Theory of Change, Playful Boston, was developed for the City of Boston based on:
Secondary research of play theory, child and adult development theory, and civic and urban planning theory, and
Learnings from a robust portfolio of projects conducted by the New Urban Mechanics and partners across the city and broader civic innovation ecosystem.
Playful Boston was put into practice with a portfolio of projects. The projects were developed in collaboration with a coalition of partners across the city. These projects include: Play around the City, Play Around the Snowy City, and Boston Basics Nudges.
Outcomes
The Playful Boston portfolio of projects were deployed and evaluated for critical insights and learnings.
Seeing the installations led people to think creatively about spaces and other ways Boston could be playful. This approach and intent seemed to create a safe and positive way for people to interface with the City. People wanted to partner, to participate. This demonstrates the critical role play has in supporting a flourishing democracy.