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.
Play Well exhibition, Thomas SG Farnetti. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Takes playing seriously.... not so seriously that it kicks the fun out of it.
‘Play Well’ explores how play transforms both childhood and society. Using displays of historic toys and games, artworks and design, this exhibition investigates how play develops social bonds, emotional resilience and physical wellbeing. The exhibition includes: images of children at play in the street, in playgrounds and beyond; makeshift and commercially produced toys; digital games and a larp (live-action role play) space by artist Adam James.
The exhibition is open to people of all ages, but there are limited opportunities for interaction and handling objects.
Exhibition highlights
Fröbel's Gifts. Source: Collection of Elyse and Lawrence B. Benenson.
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These ‘gifts’ are a series of very simple objects given to young children to help them explore the world and express their creativity. They were designed by German educational reformer Friedrich Fröbel, who founded the kindergarten movement in 1839. He believed that play was the highest expression of a child’s soul. Kindergarten (meaning ‘children garden’) went on to influence 20th-century art and design, from the Bauhaus to Buckminster Fuller.
Documentary style film of early years education practice in Pistoia, northern Italy. © Bartolomeo Pampaloni.
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Wellcome Collection commissioned this short film about early years education in the city of Pistoia, Northern Italy. It shows the relationship between educator and child as a collaborative process, with curricular ‘invitations’ led by the child’s imagination.
Toys used for Lowenfeld's 'World Technique' therapy - Charles: world 40. Source: Science Museum Group.
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This ‘world’ was created by a seven-year-old boy under the care of renowned child psychologist Margaret Lowenfeld. She believed that children were better able to express themselves through play than words, and pioneered the ‘World Technique’ during the 1920s. Children were invited to create a scene using miniature toys in a tray filled with sand.
Architectural model of the BRAC Play Lab at Rohingya refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Source: BRAC Institute of Educational Development.
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This is an architectural model of a Play Lab in a refugee camp in Bangladesh for displaced Rohingya people. Play Labs are spaces for children to access play and learning, set up by BRAC, a development NGO. These temporary structures are carefully designed using materials that reference local culture, evoking a sense of home and emotional security in a situation where there is none.
Larp (live action role-play) installation by Adam James, Thomas SG Farnetti. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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This installation by Adam James is inspired by larp (live-action role play) and explores how play can promote empathy and collaboration. Larping is a form of collaborative storytelling in which players assume a character and immerse themselves in a fiction to experience how others might live. James’s environment invites playful responses to somewhat ambiguous objects, reminiscent of postwar playgrounds and childish desires.
Early LEGO® plastic bricks. © LEGO Group Archives.
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The brand name LEGO® is derived from two Danish words that mean ‘play’ and ‘well’. Early LEGO® Group products were wooden, but during the 1950s the company started manufacturing interlocking plastic bricks like these. The bricks were produced in deliberately non-naturalistic colours in order to create infinite possibilities. These bricks will still work with LEGO® produced today.
Barbie Liberation dolls. Source: Igor Vamos.
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These Barbie and GI Joe figures have had their voice boxes swapped. In 1993 artist and activist Igor Vamos formed the Barbie Liberation Organization (BLO). The BLO were said to have infiltrated Toys R Us to doctor the voice boxes of 300 Barbies and GI Joes, which were then sold in stores. GI Joe utters, “My desk is a mess,” while Barbie declares, “Vengeance is mine.”
Hulk with diabetic line and Barbie with vitiligo. © #ToyLikeMe.
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These ‘toy hacks’ were created by journalist Rebecca Atkinson, who was frustrated by the lack of representation of children with disabilities in the toy market. Atkinson founded #ToyLikeMe to make over mainstream toys to show a range of human difference and represent diversity in the toybox. Here, the Hulk has a diabetic line, and Barbie is shown with the skin condition vitiligo.
Boys and Sculpture, Children's Art Commission by Eva Rothschild. © Eva Rothschild.
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This film is a joyous exploration of transgressive delight, destruction and re-creation, in which normal gallery rules are forgotten. Sculptor Eva Rothschild worked with 11 boys aged six to 11 years. She installed replicas of her work at Chisenhale Gallery and asked the boys to enter one by one. They were instructed to look with their eyes for as long as possible, after which they could touch.
Adventure Playground series by Mark Neville. © Mark Neville.
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These photographs by artist and activist Mark Neville are part of a series shot in adventure playgrounds around London. These hidden pockets of urban space offer children opportunities to come together, engage in independent, risk-filled activity and discover nature. The images are part of Neville’s wider project to defend children’s rights to play.
RawMinds games, Thomas SG Farnetti. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Game designer Adam Dixon worked with a group of young people aged 14 to 19 who created games based on their experiences as ‘digital natives’ – the generation brought up in the digital age. These playable games reflect their opinions on gaming as a way of forging friendships and enabling collaboration, as well as concerns about anxiety and addiction.