Symposium—Toys and Childhood: Playing with Design

This symposium is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Swedish Wooden Toys at the Bard Graduate Center (Sep. 18, 2015–Jan. 17, 2016). Five papers will extend the conversation about toys as designed objects and as cultural forms beyond the gallery to explore their relationship with notions of children and childhood. The speakers, who include historians and critics of art, design, and cultural history, will address a variety of toy-related subjects from the eighteenth century to the present across Europe and the US. James E. Bryan Associate Professor, Art History, University of Wisconsin-Stout “Material Culture in Miniature: ‘Nuremberg Kitchens’ as Inspirational Toys” Megan Brandow-Faller Associate Professor, History, Kingsborough College, City University of New York “Child’s Play: Artistic Toys and the Invention of Child Art in Secessionist Vienna” Robert Goldberg (not archived at request of speaker) Faculty, History, Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn “Political Designs: Children’s Toys and Social Change in 1960s and '70s America” Colin Fanning Curatorial Fellow, European Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Philadelphia Museum of Art “Building Kids: Design, Creativity, and LEGO” Alexandra Lange Architecture and Design Critic, Curbed, Dezeen “After Wood: The Plastic and the Digital in Contemporary Toys” Convened by the exhibition co-curators Susan Weber, Founder, Director, and Professor, Bard Graduate Center Amy F. Ogata, Professor, Art History, University of Southern Cali