A few years back, my cousin’s daughter posted photos on Instagram for this place called Hopscotch. It looked awesome, so I went out to investigate. Hopscotch is an interactive and immersive art museum with modern artists and ever-changing exhibits. I’ve wanted to go for years! The biggest thing that has held me back is that it’s located downtown and I hate driving downtown. I always forget that even in my home city, Lyft is an option!

Anyway, Jason and I were meant to go to Hopscotch for Valentine’s Day, we had tickets and everything, but that was the week of Tyler’s AF graduation and several other events, and I ended up having a massive flare that left me unable to use the tickets, so we held off. General busyness kept us from going for the next few months, so in May, we decided on a weekend in June, bought the tickets, and planned not to let anything get in the way this time!

Last weekend, we got a Lyft downtown, and our little adventure began! Hopscotch is built into what was clearly an old bank. One of the exhibits was even inside the old vault. Upstairs, there’s a bar and food area with art all around, and when it’s your ticket time, you head downstairs into the main museum portion. There’s a giant ball pit with rainbow lights zipping through, a “color therapy” room that was so intense that I actually think I burned my eyes (!!!), and then you enter a circle of exhibits, going from room to room until you’re back in the ball pit area.

The exhibits change depending on what artists are featured, with a few permanent structures (like the ball pit and the rainbow cave). Some rooms were filled with murals the size of entire walls. Some had swirling digital art that reacted to your movements. There was laser spray paint and optical illusions and a maze of clear walls with messages of unity and human rights written in many different languages.

In one room, you picked up an old fashioned payphone to listen to secrets others had submitted, and there was a number to call to submit your own. The rainbow cave is made entirely of upcycled plastic bags, thousands upon thousands of them, representing the number of bags used every few SECONDS in the world. Oy.

Some rooms appealed to us more than others, as you might imagine, as would be the same for any visitor. Then after we were done downstairs, we got to experience one last immersive exhibit back on the main level, a delicate light show in the dark, constantly moving, with mirrored walls so distant in the lights that you only caught brief flashes of your own silhouette. The slow walk through the maze of these lights led us out into the gift shop, where I promptly found a sticker for my planner, a pin for my hiking bag, and a comfy shirt that says “love is love is love.” I also met an incredibly kind cashier who could easily have been a model, and they were sweet enough to let me take a few photos.

It was a lovely experience over all. Not super expensive (I think our tickets were $12 or $14 each?), and I was happy to spend the extras on drinks, merch, and Lyfts to/from the exhibit. I can definitely see going back again with friends, maybe with new artists featured in places, and seeing new things that I didn’t discover on my first walk-through.