The Playground Project

Welcome back! 

I recently decided to take my younger siblings to a brand new exhibition at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. 

'The Playground Project' is described as:

'...A meeting place. It is a contested urban space where ideas about education and childhood, creativity and control, art and public space can collide. It was once, and occasionally still is, a laboratory for adventurous ideas and radical forms.' 

'Four key moments shaped the development of the playground. At the beginning of the 20th century social reformers 'saved' homeless street children from the city and put them in supervised, gender-separated playgrounds equipped with risky climbing frames made of steel pipes and wood. In the 1930's a new understanding developed, especially in Scandinavia, where people believed it better for children to play with natural materials and introduced sand and water for independent creative play. At this time play was viewed in terms equal to gymnastic achievement.'

'In the 1960's, the decade of self empowerment and Do-It-Yourself, parents and citizens began to take initiative themselves: playgrounds became viewed as autonomous community projects. As the age of social and political utopias came to an end in the 1980's, norms and boredom began to take over playgrounds. New, much stricter health safety standards led many creators to abandon the field of playground design altogether.'

' The Playground Project traces the history of this urban phenomenon that has come to reflect so many important social transformations. At the same time the exhibition is intended to be a source of inspiration for future designers of play spaces. It is a homage to play, a plea for playgrounds to be more daring, a rallying cry for a certain level of risk and adventure to remain in society.' 

We went relatively early during the day, but as you can see through the pictures it was very busy. Busier in fact than any current playgrounds I've walked past in the last few weeks! 

My inner child was desperate to try everything out, but I spent my time wandering the room looking at all of the images from years ago instead. I found it so insightful to see just how different playgrounds used to be - I definitely think current creators need to step out of their comfort zones!

There's still over 2 months left of this exhibition so check it out if you can! I promise you'll enjoy it if you can get past the constant, happy and excited screams of children.

Love, Lana Skye x 

Photo Credit: Myself.