See How Playground Structures Are Hand-Crafted By Cambridge Artist Mitch Ryerson

"Dust" by Mei Tao, 2024.

See How Playground Structures Are Hand-Crafted By Cambridge Artist Mitch Ryerson

See how play spaces take shape, from first sketch to finished structures, in a hands-on exhibition of playground design by Cambridge artist Mitch Ryerson at Cambridge Arts' Gallery 344, 344 Broadway, Cambridge, from Sept. 21 to Dec. 31, 2026. Join us for a reception for the exhibition "Joyful Anarchy: Mitch Ryerson - Playgrounds" on Monday, Oct. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. Visiting the gallery and all gallery events are always free and open to all.

For decades, Ryerson has shaped the way Cambridge plays-from the logs, ladders and hull-like climbing structure at Alberico Park to the ship in Cambridge Common's Kemp Playground to the "Sensory Hilltop" at the Louis A. DePasquale Universal Design Playground at Danehy Park, which is part of the Cambridge public art collection. He's also crafted a timber climbing structure for Boston's Charles River Esplanade Playspace, a bench that can be played like a marimba for Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, and benches for Boston's Forest Hills Cemetery. And he turned the tall stump of a fallen silver maple on Cambridge's Hurlbut Street into a beloved Winnie-the-Pooh house (it was removed in 2017 after a two-decade run).

The exhibition "Joyful Anarchy" brings Ryerson's playground work indoors through models, sketches, and full-scale pieces, including a centerpiece structure on which visitors are invited to play. Ryerson's swings, benches, marimbas, and sculptural play spaces turn parks and schoolyards into places to build, balance, listen, and gather. Ryerson began his career building wooden boats in Maine, before studying furniture design in Boston University's Program in Artisanry. His hand-crafted play structures are exciting alternatives to the usual mass-produced plastic playgrounds, inviting children to inhabit unique natural spaces.

Ryerson's efforts to honor the value of play extend beyond our community. The cube play structure at the heart of the exhibition was designed and built by Ryerson as part of "Portable Play, " a collaborative project of local designers and fabricators to create play structures that can be packed flat for easy shipping to war-scarred places where children have lost safe spaces to play. Prototypes are currently being built for camps in Jordan along the Syrian and West Bank borders. A second project is being created for Ukraine.

Free events:

Monday, Oct. 5, 5 to 7 p.m.: Join us for a reception inside Gallery 344, 344 Broadway, Cambridge, for the exhibition "Joyful Anarchy". Refreshments.

Monday, Oct. 19, 4 to 6 p.m.: Hands-on Workshop at City Hall Annex Plaza, 344 Broadway, Cambridge. Outdoor maker space to build and play. Refreshments.