Category: Play

free play

It was Froebel’s intent that the routine of taking out and putting back the blocks would instill a sense of responsibility and respect for the materials given to the child.  This respect and understanding of how to treat what has been given to them “the gifts”, shapes their view and the way they treat nature and others around them.

This is also due in part to the way that the gifts are presented to the child as “a representation of the natural world around them”.  This is all so clear to me as an adult as I look upon my own experience as a child, when I attended a Froebel School, in Mississauga, ON, Canada, and played with the gifts on a regular basis.

via free play | Play Enthusiast’s Playground Blog.

Fröbel Studio

Rare is pleased to present Fröbel Studio: The Institute for Creativity, Eamon O’Kane’s third one-person show at the gallery. O’Kane transforms nearly the entire exhibition space into an interactive installation that demonstrates how the pedagogical ideas of one man, Friedrich Fröbel, profoundly affected the course of modern art, architecture, and design. The show runs from October 17 until November 14, with an opening night reception on Thursday, October 17.

Fröbel Studio makes direct visual and conceptual reference to the educational play materials known as Fröbel Gifts – the colorful spheres, cylinders, and tubes that were developed in the early 1800s by Friedrich Fröbel, the inventor of Kindergarten. These tools are still instrumental the world over in unlocking creativity at an early age by teaching children about three-dimensional shapes and colors, and their relationship to the environment and nature.

O’Kane’s installation is an integral part of his ongoing exploration of the symbiotic interplay of art, architecture, design, and pedagogy. It includes a plethora of educational activities and playthings as well as paintings, drawings, digital prints, videos, and architectural components by Eamon that not only reference Fröbel’s learning methods, but also the aesthetic ideas of the game-changing Modernist artists, architects, and designers so influenced by his teachings – particularly Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Charles Eames.

Despite all of its significant art historical references and influences, Fröbel Studio is ultimately meant to be enjoyed by youngsters in the company of their families and teachers. For this reason, O’Kane and Rare have reached out to elementary schools in the New York metropolitan area to invite them to bring their classrooms to the gallery to experience the installation.

via Wall Street International Magazine – Fröbel Studio: The Institute for Creativity [Arts, United States].

Fröbel Eames Studio: A History of Play

Eamon O´Kane, ‘Fröbel Eames Studio: A History of Play’ (2011), shown at ‘It´s about time ‘, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, LA, USA, 2011.

Artistic research is about acquiring new knowledge. Through being more than the sum of a series of individual works, artistic research is a process that contributes to development and innovation. Based on art and design practices, contextualization, method and critical reflection, artistic research increases and develops understanding and knowledge within art and design.

Eamon O´Kane is Professor of Visual Art and Leader of an Artistic Research group at the Department of Fine Art at Bergen Academy of Art and Design.

The Universities and University Colleges Act of 1995 equates Artistic Research with Scientific Research. The ambition of Bergen Academy of Art and Design is to strengthen its artistic research to a high international level.

via Artistic Research at KHiB.

Toys | Harvard Gazette

Tadashi Tokieda drops a small cedar ball into an empty soup bowl and begins swirling the bowl on a tabletop with his hand.

As the bowl moves in circles, so does the ball.

“It’s not that I knew a piece of science and designed a simple toy to illustrate; I find a raw phenomena … interesting to children and professional scientists alike. Professional scientists may find it even more interesting than a child would. … Children and great professors of Harvard University can share the surprise.” said Radcliffe Fellow Tadashi Tokieda.
Continue reading “Toys | Harvard Gazette”

Bibros Building Blocks

bibros

elegant, hand finished shapes in a four European wood (nut tree, wild service tree, maple, and oiled beech wood) lend their colors to four different forms of block

The extraordinary but harmonious language of colors and shapes offered by Bibros is appealing and natural.  The shapes and natural colors allow for construction and contrasting designs, which give room for imagination to arrange and build structural works of art.

bibros2  

 24 pieces.  Ages 5 and up.  Designer:  Yasuo Aizawa

Amazon.com: Bibros Building Blocks: Toys & Games.

EcoWalk

The goal was to take an underused area of the school at Sag Harbour and transform it into a beautiful, useable, educational area for the children and community to use, as well as educate them about the origins and importance of various ecosystems.

When complete, it will incorporate an outdoor classroom, lunch area, edible garden and different ecosystems that educate students about the local flora and fauna.

Lina Morgenstern

Paradies_der_Kindheit,_Lina_Morgenstern

Lina Morgenstern was first attracted to social work by the writings of Friedrich Fröbel (1782–1852). According to Fröbel, the future of humankind was in the hands of women, since theirs was the major formative influence during the first six years of a child’s life. Every young woman should therefore receive training as an educator. In contrast to the existing child-care centers, Fröbel advocated kindergartens in which children of all social classes and religions would engage together in play, handicrafts and music, like one big family. This aspect of his teachings aroused the distrust of the Prussian authorities, who ordered the closure of all kindergartens.

Lina Morgenstern began intensive Fröbel studies under Baroness Berthe von Marenholtz-Bülow even before the ban was lifted in 1860. She also joined the Women’s Association for Promoting Fröbel-style Kindergartens, serving as its president from 1862 to 1866. Since Fröbel’s writings were not readily accessible, she published a textbook, Das Paradies der Kindheit (The Childhood Paradise, 1861), which scored an enormous success in Germany and abroad and by 1905 had gone into seven editions. She later published additional books of stories for children.

via Jewish Women’s Archive

Available in the New York Public Library or use www.worldcat.org to find a library with a copy or microfilm of “Das Paradies der Kindheit durch Spiel, Gesang und Beschäftigung : Friedrich Fröbel’s Spielbeschaftigungen als ein zusammenhängendes Ganzes nebst Erzählungen und Lieber zur Spielanwendung : ein praktisches Handbuch für alle Freund der Kinderwelt” by Lina Morgenstern

Lina Morgenstern – Wikipedia

 

via Lina Morgenstern – Wikipedia entry in English.

via Lina Morgenstern – Wikipedia entry in German.

Magic Beach: Alison Lester

Magic Beach

20th Anniversary Edition featuring a pull-out frieze to pin up: Amazon.com: Books

Filled with fun rhymes and make-believe stories, this wonderfully illustrated children’s tale offers an imaginative view of a beach that includes swimming, surfing, and splashing. Imagine a perfect beach where you can swim, surf, splash through the waves, make sandcastles, hunt for treasures, explore rock-pools, muck about in boats, fish from the jetty, and build a bonfire under the stars. Imagine a beach where adventure begins. From sand castles and rock pools to boats and fish, the realistic scenes evoke images of a summer day along the waterfront where anything can happen.