A community-designed series of playful spaces built for creativity, learning, and connection
Neighborhood North Playful Learning Landscapes Series
Supported by the Arts Equity Reimagined Fund, this community-designed series of playful learning installations transforms three gathering spaces across Beaver Falls, PA: the high school practice field, Second Ave Playground, and Neighborhood North pollinator garden. Shaped by input from local families, artists, and fifth-grade students, Story Wheels, a Sound Garden, and Puzzle Walls invite children and families to explore storytelling, music, problem-solving, and collaboration through play.
Children create stories, experiment with sound and rhythm, and work together to solve puzzles inspired by ideas and artwork from the community. By bringing playful learning into spaces where families already gather, the installations create new opportunities for connection, creativity, confidence-building, and learning throughout Beaver Falls.
The Learning Goals
The Neighborhood North Playful Learning Landscapes foster collaboration by encouraging children and caregivers to solve puzzles, create stories, and explore together, negotiating ideas and working through challenges as a team. They strengthen storytelling and creative thinking through open-ended opportunities to imagine, communicate, and build on one another’s ideas. The installations also deepen connection to place by reflecting the stories, artwork, and values that Beaver Falls residents identified as central to their community.
The Team
The Neighborhood North Playful Learning Landscapes were created through a collaboration between Neighborhood North, Playful Learning Landscapes, and a working group of seven regional artists: Daniel Harper, Rebekah Knab-Dinardo, William Kofmehl, Pamela Rossi-Keen, Kristen Slebodnik, Renne Suhr, and Rebecca Williams. The installations were fabricated and installed by Daniel Harper, Brown Dog Signs, and Helisek Construction.
Supporters
The Neighborhood North Playful Learning Landscapes were generously supported by the Arts Equity Reimagined Fund, New Sun Rising, and Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise (PACE), along with the Beaver Falls community, whose voices, time, and ideas shaped every part of the design.
