Fun and Games: The Gallery as Adult Play Centre February 29, 2008

ICA founding president Herbert Read described the ICA at its inception as an "adult play centre". This was a serious declaration: Read believed that "aggression is kept in check via sublimation - namely through play." Jasia Reichardt's 1969 exhibition Play Orbit was a literal articulation of Read's commitment to play featuring toys and games as works to be considered as art, however, within the concept of 'play' arguably lies an assumption of a more direct act of participation.

Is the audience a victim in its passivity? Or are strategies of 'involvement' off-putting and even unwanted? Is play a vital dimension for engagement or a banal distraction from the serious business of contemporary exhibition making?

Speakers: Sebastian Boyle, Boyle Family; Jessica Morgan, curator of contemporary art, Tate Modern; Louise Hojer, art theorist and curator; Dr Ricarda Vidal, cultural critic and short film curator. Chair: Marko Daniel, curator of public programmes, Tate Modern.

£10 / £9 Concessions / £8 ICA Members.

Official Website: http://www.ica.org.uk/Fun%20and%20Games%3A%20The%20Gallery%20as%20Adult%20Play%20Centre+15916.twl