A Third Act for Slippery the Calf

The museum’s exhibit From Coops to Cathedrals: Nature, Childhood, and the Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright closes on January 2, 2024, but the museum has a longstanding practice of reusing and upcycling exhibit elements, often in surprising ways.

Slippery the Calf, in the museum’s Coops to Cathedrals exhibit, June 2017–January 2024

One of the most iconic elements of Coops is a calf unofficially named “Slippery” who started out as part of a dairy-themed exhibit when the museum was in its former location on State Street. Slippery is so-named because, for a while on State Street, there was a sign on the calf that said, “Be careful climbing on me, I’m slippery.” Kids understandably began to call the calf Slippery and the name stuck.

Every election season, the museum sets up a temporary exhibit called The Polling Place, where children can see realistic ballots and vote on matters in the museum. (Thus was Poop Day instituted, when the four- year-old vote turned out in strong numbers. These elections have consequences.) When the museum moved from State Street to its current home on N. Hamilton Street, kids voted on which old elements should be included in the new space and the cows won. Instead of recreating the former exhibit in the new location, the cows were incorporated in new ways. One became part of the “cow jumping over the moon” over the museum’s atrium and another overlooks the Wonderground. Slippery joined Coops in 2017, and became a popular feature, with kids brushing, bottle-feeding, and riding the calf constantly.

Plans are already underway for how this beloved bovine can become a part of another exhibit. So it won’t be “goodbye” to Slippery, just “So long, and see you later!” 

Slippery is frequently a noble steed

Even toddlers will often immediately begin to brush, feed, or hug Slippery

The “stone” blocks often became houses and pens for Slippery

Even adults at the museum’s Adult Swim and In Good Company events found Slippery irresistable.