Child's Play at MOMA

Museum of Modern Art: "Century of the Child"

Though it’s hard to imagine a world without technology in this age of information, some of us are able to remember those heady, rose-tinted days when children weren’t perpetually glued to their Playstation 3. But if you’ve ever wondered how kids used to play up to 100 years ago, what classrooms looked like, or what books your parents and grandparents read, now’s your chance to find out. In what’s being touted as the first ever large-scale showcase of its kind, New York’s Museum of Modern Art presents an intriguing exhibition of historical, child-focused design spanning from 1900-2000.

Inspired by Swedish social theorist Ellen Key’s book Century of the Child (1900), and her belief that the coming period would be one of great change and growth with regards to children’s development, curators Juliet Kinchin and Aidan O’Connor examine the accuracy of her claims in retrospect, by exploring unusual and rarely-considered design elements and their C.20th innovations. The more than 500 exhibited pieces touch on areas such as school architecture, clothing, playgrounds, toys and games, children’s hospitals and safety equipment, nurseries, furniture, and books, and offer an amazing insight into what happened when modernist design met modernist thinking. Whatever you do though, don’t dawdle, this thought-provoking collection is only on show until November 5!