News

At Play Mountain Place, we believe all children have the right to live in peace and safety. We mourn the abuse and murder of children, whoever and wherever they are. We stand against racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and all other forms of bigotry that place greater value on some lives than on others. We call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to the violence. In addition, we call for steps to be taken now to prevent the humanitarian…

I came to this country from South Korea to attend graduate school in Rhode Island School of Design in the summer of 2003. I was on my own, and it was the first time I came to the United States. At this progressive art school, I was exposed to the freedom of self expression for the first time.

In 2008, we asked our community to support us in buying the school property in a campaign called “Preserve A Legacy.” Thanks to our community’s generosity at that time, then throughout the years that followed, we are very pleased to announce that we completed payment on Play Mountain Place’s mortgage in October of 2022. 

Keiko Matsumoto, beloved community member and teacher at Play Mountain Place, moved back home to Japan.

Teachers and staff were pleased to gather with Joey Artero on the last day of Summer Camp to celebrate this long time, beloved teacher’s retirement. There was cake, homemade streamers, purple roses, great jokes, and also some tears.

From Judy Accardi CO-DIRECTOR After 20 years as Director of Play Mountain Place and almost 20 more years in other staff roles here, I am ready to begin to focus my time and energy on other areas of my life that are important to me − taking more time for myself, for my family, time to travel, to write, to focus more on my private practice and to explore other interests I’ve long been curious to try.

We want you to know that we stand firmly in support of the Black community. Black Lives Matter.

This is an incredibly trying time for everyone in the world. The separation we have from one another—coupled with the broader anxieties of this moment—are testing all of us. As we adjust and adapt to all of these new things, we wanted to be in touch with you, our wider community, about how it’s going at Play Mountain Place.

My relationship to handwriting has drastically shifted and evolved over the course of my life. I may be one of the last generations of public school students who were taught the “necessity” of cursive handwriting.

This year in Mountain Yard, we experimented with fermentation in our Magic with Microbes class. In one of our projects, we cut up cabbage, radishes, carrots, garlic, and ginger and added salt and spices to make sauerkraut and kimchi.

“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor! Would you be mine? Could you be mine?” – Mister Rogers Our intrepid wanderers in House Group this year adventured up and down our neighborhood streets, greeting people, hearing their stories, learning about our local businesses, and growing empathy through the knowing of others.

We invited Anna Cummins and Marcus Eriksen of the 5 Gyres Institute (parents of Avani who attended Play Mountain Place), to give a very educational presentation about plastic pollution in the ocean. The children were so inspired from this presentation that at the next park day, they made a plan and picked up trash.

On February 25, 2015 in honor of Black History/African American Heritage Month, Alonzo Cephus, former Play Mountain Place parent and current Board Member, came to Mountain Yard to speak about his experience as a young person living in Montgomery, Alabama, during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and his family’s personal connection to Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement.