Do you Play Well?
"Play Well" An Exhibition at The Wellcome Collection, London.
It was so interesting - having worked in the Childrens gift and toy sector for now over 20 years, I have always been fascinated by the way children play and learn. As a Teacher of 17 year olds, introducing them to the world of art and design at our local sixth form college I always thought it was a bit like playing as well!
This is how The Wellcome introduce the show:
"Why do we play? How important is it for all of us, young or old? What does it mean to play well? We invite you to consider the impact of play in our lives."
The Play Well exhibition looks at how important "Play" is in society as a whole with wonderful extracts from people like Friedrich Froebel, inventor of the kindergarten, and Loris Malaguzzi, pioneer of the Reggio Emilia Approach, which encourages imagination and experimental learning. There is also a fantastic selection of toys on display from early Montessori toys to modern ones such as the positive role model Lottie Dolls. With some fun interactive parts to the exhibition too for big and little kids!
There was so much interesting stuff there, that I will be sharing some of the inspirational finds from this exhibition over the coming months here on our blog so please follow me and keep your eyes peeled.
But in the mean time, as we enter the festive season and start longing for a white Christmas, we wanted to share this lovely quote seen at Play Well from architect Aldo Van Eyck, which we think gets to the heart of the the exhibition:
“You know what happens after a heavy snow storm? The child takes over – he is temporarily lord of the city. You see him darting in every direction collecting snow off frozen automobiles. A great trick of the skies...”