Global Cardboard Challenge

With a goal of engaging 1 million kids in 70 countries in creative play, our annual Global Cardboard Challenge invites kids of all ages to design and build anything they can imagine from cardboard and recycled materials. Inspired by the "Caine's Arcade" short film, kids repurpose cardboard into arcade games, toys, robots, spaceships - whatever they imagine. Along the way, participants can learn teamwork, problem solving, creativity, the value of recycling, social-entrepreneurship, and a whole lot more! The Challenge culminates in a Global "Day of Play" that brings communities together to celebrate the creativity and imagination of kids every where! 

Want to organize a challenge for kids in your community? Get Involved 

Want to Learn More? Watch Videos from 2012 Cardboard Challenge

Imagination Spaces and Chapters

We're developing a program for Imagination Chapters to organize and continue to engage kids locally in creative play throughout the year. From more temporary “pop up” spaces, to capital intensive permanent spaces, we are working to create geographic footholds for the teaching and practice of creativity in communities all over the world. We will work through our chapter members to launch and sustain maker spaces, fab labs, local “creativity challenges” and other physical spaces for creative “making” at schools, libraries and community centers.

Caine's Arcade for Schools 

Educators, have you used Caine's Arcade in your classroom to teach and inspire? Please share with us any curriculum or activities that you created: hello@imagination.is

Imagination Foundation is developing a curriculum to work alongside the "Caine's Arcade" film. The curriculum will develop creativity and social entrepreneurship in children. Teachers will use the short film as inspiration for their students to build fun, engaging arcade games made from cardboard and recycled materials. Children will then operate their arcades selling tokens and "fun passes" to raise money to support various local causes.

Caine's Arcade for Schools creates a very low-cost easily scalable project-based learning environment that inspires invention and makes leaning fun. Over the course of the program, teachers will engage students in a simple process that develops creativity, and along the way, they will learn: Design Thinking, Math and Financial LIteracy, Engineering, Social Entrepreneurship and the value of Recycling.

Imagine L.A.

This local initiative focuses on activities that increase the foothold of creativity and play specifically in Los Angeles County, from a permanent Imagination Space at the original home of Caine’s Arcade in Boyle Heights, to widespread participation in our Creativity Challenges, to a real-world network of local educators and stakeholders who work together to address the impact of creativity on teaching learning and schooling.

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