Creative Playthings

“Play has a basic role in the drama of a child’s development. It is a serious business for the child, his true means of learning and growing…Every child should have a wide variety of play materials to evoke in him a spirit of inquiry; to develop physical manipulation to the fullest; to stimulate creative expression. He requires not only the miniatures of real objects in the adult world, but also building blocks, clay, finger paints, et cetera, that he can adapt to his particular needs.”

-Frank Caplan, 1949, Founder of Creative Playthings

Creative Playthings was founded in NYC by Frank and Theresa Caplan in 1945.  Their goal was to create educational toys and materials that were simple but beautiful, the sorts of playthings that would promote a child’s creativity and imagination.

Caplan believed that providing unpainted abstract forms that emphasized shape, color and texture, as opposed to life-like details, would stimulate a child’s imagination.  So he began to make his own forms, right in the store on 95th street, that could be manipulated and rearranged into all sorts of different combinations and and structures.

Beginning in 1949, Creative Playthings embarked on a series of collaborations with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. In 1949, the children’s room and playroom of Marcel Breuer’s “House in the Museum Garden” was composed almost entirely of Creative Playthings objects and designs, including their “Hollow Blocks.” After that Caplan worked with such notable artists, architects, and designers as Isamu Noguchi, Louis Kahn, Henry Moore, and Robert Winston on comprehensive playground designs (although some of these designs were not fully realized). He also collaborated with numerous international artists to design playground equipment, such as the Swedish sculptor, Egon Möller-Nielsen’s fiberglass helical slide

Later followed a close collaboration with Swiss toymaker Antonio Vitali to design a series of “Playforms” – smooth sculpted animals, vehicles, and figures in wood that fit neatly into a child’s hands. Each object is more beautiful than the next!

In 1966 the company was bought by, and then later sold again in the 80s, and it was never really the same again. But they had a pretty spectacular run there for nearly two decades! Why can’t children’s toys still look this good?!

Noguchi Playscape

In my opinion, public art brings a city to life.  Whether it is an incredible piece of graffiti executed guerilla style under the cover of night, or a commissioned mural/sculpture laboriously created and placed openly with community approval, public art enriches the urban landscape.  But when Isamu Noguchi created Playscape in Piedmont Park in the city of Atlanta, he took the idea of public art to a whole other level.

 

Playscape is a playground and sculpture all in one.  Sadly, it is the only playground Noguchi created in the United States.  The New York Parks Commissioner and the WPA Federal Art Project rejected Noguchi’s plans for a similar structure in the 1930s, as did the United Nations headquarters in the 50s. Luckily, Nogochi had more success in 1975 when the High Museum of Atlanta sponsored him to create Playscape in 1975.

Noguchi felt that it was better to interact with sculpture, rather than simply view it from afar.  The playground is the epitome of this statement.  The park is made up of varying shapes in primary colors – from a spiral slide, to a rectangular slide, to swings mounted from a giant triangle, all of which are visually appealing in and of themselves. But the shapes and colors truly invite children to interact with the Playscape environment.  Rather than requiring that children slide on the slide, they could climb it, or roll down it, or use it as a castle or a fortress.  Point being, the play forms are flexible, and Noguchi very thoughtfully constructed them this way.

 

The playground is currently being restored by the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs to alleviate the weather damage and to integrate the safety modifications needed since its construction was completed in 1976. The Noguchi Playscape is located between the 12th and 14th Street entrances to Piedmont Park.