In its earlier educational formulations, play was naturalized as proper of childhood and talked as the path to learning. Within this essentialization of play, there are moral and governmental goals. Not only would play remove the child from vicious or risky entertainment, but it would also train the child to become a civilized citizen of the nation. The organization of play and its spaces were also configured as devices for observing and producing knowledge about the child. It is essential to acknowledge that the playful child is made up at the intersection of racial, gender, ableist, adultist, and class markers.
“Contrastes” (Contrasts) is one of the games that make up the “Jogos Visuais” collection, published in 1974 by Edições ASA in Porto. It was designed by the painter Elvira Leite and the architect Manuela Malpique, both teachers in the Portuguese public education system in disciplines related to the arts.
In this article, Thomas Munro (curator of Education for the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1931-67) seeks to reflect on the possibilities of education in museums in the face of a new idea of childhood. The child Munro talks about is a curious, creative child who should not be subjected to tedious educational practices, capable of destroying her childlike nature. Munro considers that if it is necessary to think about how to make the child love a museum, then something needs to be fixed with art museums, not with the child.
Creativity and playfulness seem to be “natural” classifications to think and talk about what childhood is about and what a child is and should be. The making of this articulation goes back, at least, to the end of the 17th century. Names such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, Maria Montessori, and John Dewey circulated internationally and were assimilated at local levels as "indigenous foreigners" and "traveling libraries" ( Popkewitz, 2000), contributing to the Western notion of the child and childhood as a time of play and imagination.
The Visual Games are a collection of materials made up of books, games, book-games, worksheets, modules and equipment, aimed at the visual education of children and young people. They were conceived by the painter Elvira Leite and the architect Manuela Malpique, both arts teachers in Portuguese public education.
Edward Wiebé was a German Music teacher that went to the United States to teach at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Wiebé was one of the introducers of Friedrich Froebel's kindergarten theories in the United States. This book was published by Milton Bradley which was a company that produced school material and games. The book was a practical guide through Froebel's Gifts and Occupations.The book was reprinted several times and the 1910 edition Part I comprises a text on the kindergarten of To-day, by Jenny Merrill.
Play Orbit was an exhibition curated by Jasia Reichardt first shown at the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales in Flint from 4 to 9 August 1969 and then at Nash House, London, home of the ICA, from 28 November 1969 to 15 February 1970.
Footage from the exhibition is available online.
