Marion Design Co.

 The Dream Academy Playspace.

Overview.

After receiving a grant, The I Have a Dream Preschool Academy partnered with Marion Design Co. in January 2021 to design and implement an indoor playspace that encourages confidence and playfulness in preschoolers.

Background.

The I Have a Dream Preschool Academy is an early education program featuring an immersive bilingual curriculum. The primary goal of the Dream Academy is to equip young learners to love God, neighbor, and self well, and to practice empathy from an early age. Located just south of downtown Marion at Real Community Church, the preschool aims for long-term academic success paired with cultural enrichment. 

In January 2021, the Dream Academy received a City Seminary grant, providing resources for an interactive indoor playspace, a child-friendly educational experience about the Underground Railroad, and a welcoming outdoor playspace. 

In partnership with design students in an IWU Human-Centered Design course, we employed design thinking methods, ethnographic research, and placemaking design to create the indoor playspace for Dream Academy students.

Objectives.

Representation

The primary objective of the indoor playspace is to depict black and brown people in affirming and positive roles that children of color may see themselves in. By surrounding the young students with such images, they may more easily imagine themselves in career roles not typically depicted in media.

Imagination

The playspace seeks to empower children in their sense of imagination. In particular, by depicting heroic figures fulfilling the tasks of different careers, children may continue to develop a limitless imagination for what they can become. 

Education

By emphasizing the bilingual aspects of the Dream Academy, the playspace can act as a space that continues to immerse the students in this curriculum.

Process.

In Spring 2021, Marion Design Co. leadership led IWU’s Human-Centered Design course in researching, ideating, and sketching concepts for the indoor playspace. Throughout the process, student designers met with Ronnie Farmer, the Executive Pastor at Real Community, as well as their executive team. The designers also observed and interacted in the current playspace with the children, and conducted extensive research. After weeks of ideating placemaking design concepts, the university students presented four concepts to Dream Academy leadership, who narrowed the concepts down to two potential designs. Tashema Davis, owner and artist of Echo Gallery, then combined the two concepts into one implementable design.

Results.

The interior playspace includes three primary elements: a mural, child-sized costumes, and interactive blocks. 

The playspace mural spans four walls and was painted by Tashema Davis, owner of Echo Gallery. The mural illustrates different roles the children may dream of and live into. Through the imagery of children as artists, businessmen, and more, the mural pushes the children’s imagination and affirms their dreams. The mural also uses superhero imagery, again encouraging children in their own, innate strength and dignity. Lastly, the mural features Bible verses and quotations in both English and Spanish, in reflection of the Academy’s bilingual curriculum, such as “We can be heroes” / “Podemos ser heroés.”

Colorful wooden hooks are interspersed throughout the room, holding costumes that correspond to the careers depicted in the mural. The costumes provide children with professional attire to physically step into the roles they dream of embodying. For example, children may put on an artist’s apron or a scientist’s lab coat.  

Lastly, Jared Strand, an MDCO intern, designed a collection of interlocking wooden blocks. Adding another layer of interaction and affirmation for the Dream Academy students, the blocks correspond to the costumes and the mural. The child-sized 12x12 blocks stack three high to meet their eye level, allowing children to create and build their own unique personas.