NEWS RELEASE
March 17, 2015
Contacts: Kelly Fritz Garrow, APR, Director of Communications
419-255-8000 Ext. 7408
[email protected]
Teri Sharp, Public Relations Manager
419-254-5082
[email protected]
Public Invited to “Come over and Play” this Summer
at Toledo Museum of Art’s Play Time Interactive Exhibit
TOLEDO, Ohio – Play Time, this summer’s major contemporary exhibition at the Toledo Museum of
Art, poses a serious question about a seemingly unserious topic: Is play – the spontaneous, unstructured
time found to foster creativity and problem-solving skills – strictly for kids? This free exhibition, which
runs approximately Memorial Day weekend (May 22) through Labor Day (Sept. 6) across the TMA
campus, should bring a smile to visitors of all ages.
Contemporary society tends to classify play as an activity for childhood, a frivolous pursuit that
wastes time and detracts from more meaningful endeavors. Yet according to experts like Stuart Brown,
M.D., author, psychiatrist and founder of the National Institute of Play, play is more like oxygen. As he
writes in his book “Play,” “It’s all around us, yet goes mostly unnoticed or unappreciated until it is
missing.” This might seem surprising until one considers everything that constitutes play. Play is art,
books, movies, music, comedy, flirting and daydreaming, according to Dr. Brown.
Halona Norton-Westbrook, Ph.D., couldn’t agree more.
“As we grow up we tend to trivialize play and relegate it to childhood, but it’s an important
element of life that we wanted to explore in an exhibition,” said Norton-Westbrook, the Museum’s
Mellon Fellow and associate curator of contemporary art. “This show is not only about play in the
traditional sense, but also the idea of being in the moment, of inspiring wonder, of invoking your natural
curiosity.”
Co-curated by Norton-Westbrook and Associate Director Amy Gilman, Play Time is a more
experimental exhibition format for the Museum that aims to defy traditional ideas of art viewing with
“pop-ups that aren’t confined to one space and one time or one medium. We wanted to challenge
ourselves to find ways to even extend the experience into the community,” said Norton-Westbrook.
-more-
Play Time – 2
Works on view in the exhibition and experiences will change throughout June, July and August.
Some will even switch locations, like artist Kurt Perschke’s RedBall Project. The name is literal:
Perschke has placed his massive, inflated red ball into unexpected spaces in cities across the globe,
including Abu Dhabi, Taipei, Toronto, Sydney and Montreal. Spectators seem drawn to bouncing up
against it, photographing themselves near it and generally staring at it in curious wonder. Perschke will
choose several locations around Toledo to place the RedBall Project during its 10-day display in August.
The Canaday Gallery will be filled with artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam’s Harmonic Motion,
a colorful, multi-sensory playground that allows children and adults to climb and play inside its handcrocheted hanging nets.
Redmoon Theater, a Chicago-based troupe known for using larger-than-life contraptions and
puppets to create performances bright with spectacle, will offer the most ephemeral of Play Time
experiences when it performs for the opening celebration on June 13.
Other works of art include Jillian Mayer’s Cloud Swing, a literal title for a dreamy work of art
that involves actual swings facing a visually reproduced sky, allowing participants to feel as if they’re
sailing through the clouds; Kim Harty’s Glass Mountain, which the glassblower will create with molten
glass in front of a live audience; Stina Köhnke’s Animation, an exuberant wall installation of stuffed
animals; and Edith Dekyndt’s Ground Control, a black ball filled with helium that moves in reaction to
viewers in the gallery.
Play Time is sponsored in part by ProMedica and made possible with support from the Ohio Arts
Council and Toledo Museum of Art members. Visit toledomuseum.org for more information.
###
The Toledo Museum of Art is a nonprofit arts institution funded through individual donations, foundation grants, corporate
sponsorships and investments. The Ohio Arts Council helps fund programs at the Toledo Museum of Art through a
sustainability grant program that encourages economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all
Ohioans. Glass Pavilion® and Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion® are registered service marks.
Admission to the Museum is free. The Museum is open Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 10
a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m.; and is closed Monday and major holidays. Thursday
evening hours are sponsored by Huntington Wealth Advisors. Friday evening hours are made possible by Fifth Third Bank.
The Museum is located at 2445 Monroe Street at Scottwood Avenue, just west of the downtown business district and one
block off I-75 with exit designations posted. For general information, visitors can call 419-255-8000 or 800-644-6862, or
visit toledomuseum.org.