Playing the Archive

Join the Playing the Archive team from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 29 June at ‘A Sense of Play’ – a fun day of classic and new games for families at a temporary outdoor playground in Sheffield city centre.

Site Square, opposite contemporary art space Site Gallery, will host a packed day of traditional and brand new games like Spiders Revenge, Dodgeball Rush and Master Spinner, created by Sheffield schoolchildren and Paperfinch Theatre.

Inspired by the work of the Opies, ‘A Sense of Play’ will be a day of experimentation and play that invites people of all ages to help us turn Site Square into an outdoor playground.

Visitors will be able to drop in and join the hunt for special symbols across the square, using their phones to unlock secret stories and myths.  We will also be inviting people to share stories of play at a Memory Station and to use their imaginations to invent new games.  Players will take home a pack of special playing cards developed by the Playing the Archive team which feature secret messages left by children from the past.

 

Alison Somerset-Ward has designed a series of badges featuring children’s language from the Opie archive, which people will be able to make on the day.  The event will also host one of Playing the Archive’s Time Telephones, an installation which invites visitors to step inside and call the past to hear stories, games and rhymes from children around the country!

 

Archive films featuring children’s play from the 1950s will be screened inside the Site Gallery’s Project Space with Kollective Coffee and Kitchen at Site Gallery serving hot and cold refreshments throughout the day.Accessible toilets and baby changing facilities are also available inside Site Gallery.  Pay and display parking is available nearby on Brown Street and Sidney Street, and multi-storey car parks on Arundal Gate and the Moor.

 

Please share this event with anyone who may be interested, it is free and open to all!