A Toy - Making Safari through Southern Africa
A FREE Workshop March 31st, 2001 Atlanta, Georgia.
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Internet2 Connection: WorldPlay's exhibt and project launched October 2000

In an attempt to educate children from different cultures about each other, their lifestyles and their habits, WorldPlay is working to tie together universities from around the world through the new technology of Internet2. This broadband connection will soon make it possible for elementary school students to meet through live video conferencing at area university campuses.

The program was demonstrated October 28-October 31, 2000 in a simulation at the Mariott Marquis in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

Many Thanks to the technology department of Emory University and the teachers, parents and students of Robert Shaw Elementary who made the entire program possible. Learn More about Robert Shaw Elementary.

Internet2 -- More about the demonstration and future plans for the program.

The Smithsonian Institute and Emory University hosted a joint conference in January of 1999. The international conference featured anthropologists and psychologists from around the world, who discussed the overall goals of WorldPlay and made presentations related to those goals.

Those goals include: eduacting children about foreign cultures and customs, the benefits of recycling, the opportunities provided by new technologies and how to use them; and encouraging children to develop friendships with children from around the world and to use those friendships through ways that will help promote peace and bring the world closer together.

THE WORLDPLAY EXHIBIT: CHILDREN CREATING TOYS ACROSS CULTURES, FEATURED AT THE MICHAEL C. CARLOS MUSEUM AT EMORY UNIVERSITY

In 1998, this family festival offered children and their families an opportunity to explore the toy making traditions of children from around the world and witness the creativity exhibited by children when they created toys from the simplest of everyday materials. Every floor of the Michael C. Carlos Museum was used for the event. And with 1000 children in attendance, every floor was needed.

On each floor, the children and their families visited tables staffed by Emory University students and covered with toy-making supplies. However, unlike what might be expected, those supplies included wire and cork, among other items. And some of the toys made included puppets, African bottle cap toys and English newspaper hats. Visitors also toured an extensive exhibition of different toys made by children from around the world. They enjoyed watching a variety of African dances, and listening to students from a Japanese school play traditional melodies indigenous to their culture.

One of the events most distinguished guests was teacher Sue Rhodes from Victoria Park Gray School in Port Elizabeth, South Africa who provided the exhibit with a wire truck, as well as other unique toys, like cardboard televisions and radios from her hometown.

The Museum of International Folk Art, had a traveling exhibit called

"Recycle, Reseen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap."

A traveling exhibit by The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is in the works!
Traveling Exhibit -- More about the traveling exhibit.