The exhibition “Playgrounds & Toys 2000-2025”, an ongoing project by the Swiss NGO ART for the World, is organized by the Benaki Museum and is curated by Adelina Von Fürstenberg, President of the ART for the World. It will remain open until January, 11th, 2026. The exhibition is a presentation of an extraordinary collection featuring playgrounds and toys designed by contemporary artists, architects, and designers from around the world. The collection showcases more than 50 models, collected, exhibited, and fabricated between 2000 and 2025, as part of the ongoing Playgrounds & Toys project by ART for The World, now generously donated to the Benaki Museum. The exhibition is under the auspices of the Embassy of Switzerland in Greece.
Beyond showcasing this remarkable project, the ‘Playgrounds & Toys’ exhibition aims to inspire the full-scale construction of playgrounds in Athens and beyond, with at least one installation remaining permanently in the Benaki Toy Museum. This way, art will be transformed into a living experience—celebrating creativity, play, and solidarity, and creating a more beautiful world, one that is even child-sized. The Benaki Toy Museum, based on Maria Argyriadi’s renowned collection, features around 20,000 toys, books, and childhood items from antiquity to 1970, originating from all over the world. (Source: Benaki Museum)
Vito Acconci, USA, Klein Bottle, 2000 (Photo: Benaki Museum)
Playgrounds & Toys is the flagship initiative of ART for The World, an NGO associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) and recognized as a Public Utility by the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. The project was launched in 2000 to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Adelina von Fürstenberg invited over forty international artists, architects, and designers to create innovative playgrounds and educational games. From Nigeria to the outskirts of England, from disadvantaged areas in the United Kingdom to urban centers worldwide, the project demonstrates how art and play can become instruments of solidarity, learning, and discovery. After acclaimed presentations in Geneva and several cities in Europe, Athens now becomes the permanent home of the collection at the Benaki Museum.
Since its inception, the project has embodied the organisation’s mission: to connect art with the most vital dimensions of human life: community, imagination, and cultural exchange. Playgrounds & Toys invites children and adults alike to explore the profound link between play and human development. ‘Time is the realm of the child’, said the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. To play is to know, to learn, to relate with others, and to act while having fun. Through play, children exercise their most ‘serious’ activity: exploring their inner and outer world, developing intellectual, creative, emotional, and social skills, and discovering their own identity. Play is a fundamental human right, yet in many countries, children are denied this essential experience due to war, famine, or social injustice. (Source: Benaki Museum)
Andreas Angelidakis, Greece, Armenak, 2002-2004. Andreas Angelidakis (b. 1968, Athens, Greece) is an artist and architect whose practice spans installation, writing, and exhibition-making. Initially trained in architecture, Angelidakis explores the cultural logic of ruins, the Internet, and institutional critique through sculptural environments and speculative narratives (Source: onassis.org, (Photo: Benaki Museum)
Maria Papadimitriou, Greece, Patini, 2000 (left), Yorgos Nikas, Greece, Cube’s Puzzle, 2003 (right) (Photos: Benaki Museum)
Lauda & Donegani, Italy, Play and Reality, 2000 (upper left), Alessandro Guerriero, Italy, Isola di Pasqua, 2000 (upper right), Marie-José Burki & Mitja Tušek, Belgium/Switzerland, Spiral Playground, 2005 (lower)
The Benaki Toy Museum opened to the public in 2017 in Palaio Faliro. Its holdings, based on the collection of Maria Argyriadi—one of the most significant in Europe—include toys, books, ephemera, clothing, and other objects associated with childhood from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The museum’s collections comprise approximately 20,000 toys, games, and childhood items, spanning from antiquity to 1970. Its primary aim is to document all aspects of the themes “childhood”, “game” and “toy”, by studying the history of toys in Greece and Europe, and children’s daily life in a traditional Greek context as well
Located in the district of Palaio Faliro, the Benaki Toy Museum showcases toys from Greece and around the world
The collection’s Greek section comprises infants’ and children’s toys spanning the classical, Roman, Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods. They include hand-made traditional Greek toys dating from the 18th to the 20th century, articles from country festivals, 20th century commercial products, team sports, board games, and seasonal games. The European part of the collection comprises dolls and games of urban and rural manufacture dating from the 17th to the 20th century, mainly from England, France and Germany.
Glass “astragalos”/ “kotsi” (knucklebone) used as children’s toy. Rome, 1st or 2nd century AD, dimensions 1 x 1.5 cm. In ancient times people used to make “astragalous” of bronze, bone or ivory as children’s toys. They also often used to make “astragalous” of gold and gemstones, chiefly as votive offerings to the gods (left), Ancient clay yo-yo with dark coating over its entire surface, perimeter 18 cm (right) (Photo: Benaki Museum)
Ancient “nevrospasto” clay doll. Athenian workshop probably, 3rd or 4th century BC, height 19.2 cm (left), Clay whistle, probably ancient, Chios island, length 5 cm (right). A “nevrospasto” doll was an ancient Greek doll with movable limbs that was manipulated by strings or wires. The term comes from the Greek words for “string-pulled” or “tension-pulled,” and these dolls were popular playthings for children in ancient Greece, with some also being known as korē or plaggon. Dolls were either used as children’s toys or offerings deposited in female and children burials as well as sanctuary dedications made by girls before their passing into adulthood or wedding. (Photo: Benaki Museum)
Wooden Christmas carol boat, Lamia, 1960 (Photo: Benaki Museum). The Christmas boat is a cherished Greek tradition. Long before Christmas trees became popular, Greek children would decorate small wooden boats and sing carols (kalanda) to celebrate the season. The boat represents sailors returning home and blessings for calm seas and happiness in the year ahead, a beautiful reminder of Greece’s deep connection to the sea.
Figures from the shadow theater (left), Heroes of the Greek puppet theater (right) (Photos: athensvoice.gr). Greek shadow theater, known as Karagiozis, features leather or paper made puppets projected onto a lit screen. The humorous hero Karagiozis represents the clever, poor Greek who faces life’s struggles with wit and laughter.
A selection of 19th and 20th century regional costume dolls dressed in costumes from different parts of Greece (Photo: Benaki Museum)
Rattles from the late 18th century and early 20th century (Photo: athensvoice.gr). In ancient times, rattles were among the earliest toys for infants. Made from clay, metal, or wood, their gentle sounds were meant to soothe and amuse babies. People also believed these toys had protective powers, capable of warding off evil spirits.
Wooden rocking horse (England, 1924). Purchased at Hamleys in London and gifted by the eminent Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos to his grandson Lefterakis for his birthday in 1927 (Photo: athensvoice.gr)
Primers (alphabet books). A specialist library open to all interested parties includes 3000 books and studies relating to children and toys, archival sources, photographs, information about Greek manufacturers, and works on children’s literature and education, as well as general reference works (Photo: athensvoice.gr)
I.A.
TAGS: CHILD | TOYS | TRADITIONS
