Children are heading back to school this week, but I have some difficult news for parents: they’ll come home each afternoon. And then will be back around the house at weekends.
Now, if you’re anything like this writer, you’ll continue spending many of these childcare hours at art galleries, in the delusional belief that the art on the walls, which your children are ignoring so completely, will somehow transmogrify through the air, insinuate itself into their brains and turn them into screen-averse creative geniuses. Sure. The only thing they’ll remember of these visits will be brownies in the café and getting turned down for a pack of Warhol marbles in the shop.
Well, that could all change down in south London at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, which has unveiled its biggest redevelopment in decades. The Gallery has expanded its Sculpture Garden and converted unused areas of its grounds into something of a dream environment for children that can’t fail but bring them into mindsets where art = not boring.
The new ArtPlay Pavilion is the centre of it, a kind of fantasy funhouse for children that, if my two are anything to go by, makes them squeal on sight and then later refuse to leave. To the point where it becomes embarrassing. The striking building was by designed by architects Carmody Groarke, and echoes the design of Sir John Soane’s original building, with its groundbreaking light-capturing flair. The Gallery had successes with temporary play pavilions in the past few years but this new structure is a permanent addition, open to schools for three days and then the public for the rest of the week.
The inside – the play bit – has been created by Sarah Marsh and Stephanie Jefferies of HoLD Collective, artists who have worked in special educational needs and who clearly know how to create an environment that is tactile and safe but also spectacular. The areas inside it are inspired by paintings in the main Gallery, by the likes of Poussin and Canaletto. It’s all very handmade, and huggable, with a huge central swing and a zippy slide. Every part of it is stuffed with toys and games and sensory experiences to dive into. SEND children are very much catered for in this way, but any child will find a comforting and creative environment in which to let their minds and bodies run free.
“I think it’s so important for young people to have room for imagination and creativity,” says Chantelle Culshaw, Deputy Director at Dulwich Picture gallery, “Sarah and Stephanie have made it sophisticated and beautiful rather than having cartoons and things. It should be a really lovely experience for kids but also an environment that adults really enjoy being in. I mean we’ve all been to hideous soft plays…”
Outside the Pavilion, they have another surrealist playground piece by artist Harold Offeh called Hail the New Prophets, a funny title in the context of seeing children sliding between these giant yellow eyeballs. Then beyond, at the back of the pavilion is the new Lovington Sculpture Meadow created by landscape artist Kim Wilkie, an undulating area that resembles The Shire from The Lord of the Rings but is actually inspired by another key piece in the Gallery, Girl at a Window by Rembrandt. Again, just try stopping children from running all over the thing.
New sculptures will feature here on a rotating basis, offering an extension of the Sculpture Garden which has existing public works such as Walking the Dog I,II & III by Peter Randall-Page – giant brain-like stones to clamber over - along with Rob and Nick Carter’s Bronze Oak Grove, which studs the grounds with bronze stumps.
The first new piece to explore in the meadow is Waking Matter by Amy Stephens, which features steel beams holding up a huge lump of marble from the Carrara quarry in Italy, the same source for Michelangelo’s sculptures. You can walk under the marble, and within the context of this environment, it is all about potential, of the art to come, if only we (ie bloody kids) engage with the world and have the will to shape it.
We’re in a tightening era where art galleries can’t simply be art galleries, they have to work on ‘dwell time’. And it’s just smart thinking to build the all-ages appeal of the Gallery in the school-heavy East Dulwich and Dulwich Village. But there’s just good honest fun here too, and hope.
As Culshaw puts it: “We’re more separate these days, aren’t we? And children are getting wrapped up in those habits. It goes back to the ways kids learn and understand the world. Here we can teach them to be creative. It’s about finding their own journey.
“And when you look at the problems we’re facing, you realise that creativity and well-being need to be valued. We’ve got a responsibility to engage the next generation.”
Activities are designed for children aged from 6 months - 8 years. The ArtPlay Pavilion is open daily, with some sessions reserved for schools and private bookings https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/
