Launch, lift, and spring using a one-of-a-kind, six-sided, ten foot tall, interactive ball sculpture.
Engineer your own ball roller coaster with tracks and ramps, then observe the power of gravity through your creation! This exhibit also features an early childhood section where you can play with kinetic energy, speed, and velocity. Let the physics of simple machines and force inspire your critical thinking and problem solving!
Where?
Third Floor
Access Info
• The Ball Sculpture features ball blowers and tubes at low heights;
• The roller coaster creative activity is wheelchair accessible.
Gallery
Made possible by a generous gift from Barbee & Drew Gilman
Dedicated to Matt, Luke & Katie
Sculpture
Made possible by a generous gift from Dead River Company
Rachel Gloria Adams Mural
Made possible by a generous gift from Gorham Savings Bank
Ball Launcher Wall Made possible by a generous gift from Spectrum Healthcare Partners
Mural by Rachel Gloria Adams
Rachel Gloria Adams in front of the Ramp Up mural that she designed at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine. Photo: Ryan Adams.
Rachel Gloria Adams is a textile designer, painter, and muralist living in Portland, Maine. A graduate of the Maine College of Art, Rachel has worked as an arts organizer and educator and has exhibited her artwork throughout New England. With her husband, Ryan, Rachel has worked on the Piece Together Project, creating murals throughout Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood that represent and honor members of the community.
Rachel Gloria Adams designed two murals for the Museum & Theatre, representing more than 100 linear feet of exhibit gallery walls. One of the geometric designs backs the Go With the Flow exhibit; the other backs the Ramp Up exhibit on the third floor science center of the new facility.
“My inspiration for becoming an artist started as a child because my mother was an artist and an art teacher. Other kids would go to the beach and play games. We would take plaster of paris, make fossils, and take them home and paint them!
“My husband Ryan is a full-time muralist and I’ve always helped him out. He says my superpower is color palettes and the ability to see several steps ahead and how it all comes together.
“These two murals in the Museum & Theatre are solely my design and so they’re my first mural projects, in that sense.
“The inspiration for the geometric line drawings were the activities occurring in the gallery spaces. So curvy water designs are featured in the Go With the Flow exhibit. Upward turning designs in the Ramp Up mural were inspired by the air flows used to propel the balls. In both cases, the pathways that the balls would take through channels and arches played an important role.
“These mural designs were drawn to scale, projected onto the wall, drawn onto the wall, and then painted with Latex paint. The scale shift is insane. The editing process is different. You can’t ‘hide’ at that scale. I have seen my work at wallpaper scale before, but this is really different.
“This project is amazing. I love the space. I’m so excited to be a part of such a grand project. And I absolutely can’t wait to bring my kids here and their friends. My children have proclaimed these as ‘their murals,’ by the way!”
