Playing in Public Spaces looks at the role of the arts in the lives of children. The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic rise in opportunities for children to experience the arts as audiences and participants. It would be difficult today to find a concert hall, theatre venue, art museum or library that does not include a program for children, and these commonly include an entire children‟s wing, regular children‟s exhibitions or children‟s workshops.
This book aims to explore how and why these opportunities have emerged and burgeoned. We ask how the arts contribute to the shaping of the imaginative lives of children; and how arts practices, institutions and agencies have responded to the challenge of bringing the arts to children and children to the arts.