'ART OF PLAY' OPENS AT MINGEI INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM

Written by Pearlie Ritacco Tuesday, 02 November 2010 00:07

Escondido, CA - Just in time for the Winter Holidays, ART OF PLAY ~ Kinetic Toys of the World opens at Mingei International Museum — North County, 155 West Grand Avenue in Downtown Escondido. The exhibition draws on the Museum’s permanent collection of kites and toys from around the world, and features objects that move when manipulated. There are kites, pull and push-toys, antique mechanical banks, puppets and a group of hand-held wood toys from Central and Eastern Europe including pecking chickens, dancing bears and other gamboling animals. On exhibition 20 December through 29 June, 2008.

Kites from India, Japan, Thailand, Korea, China, France and Taiwan in shapes as diverse as dragons, butterflies, centipedes and cicadas float above the Main Gallery, as does a Chinese Festival Parade Lion. A menagerie of push, pull, rolling and whirling toys includes penguin, turtle and pigeon push-toys, alligator pull-toys, horses, a rooster and a fish on wheels and a bird whirligig racing at top speed on the end of its pole. Stuffed bears, bears on hand-held mechanical toys and a bear jumping jack represent the ursine world. Also on view are trains, cars, bicycles and airplanes.

In addition ORIGAMI : The Art of Paperfolding has been extended through March 2 and reinstalled in the Museum’s Upper Gallery. This display of figures, animals and other forms, all folded by hand, from the miniature to the monumental, will travel to the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York in the spring.

The Museum’s hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 1 – 4 pm. On the second Saturday of each month, hours are extended to 10 am – 8 pm and on the third Tuesday of each month hours are extended to 10 am – 6 pm. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for children, students and active duty military personnel with ID. Complimentary admission for all is sponsored by La Jolla Bank on the third Tuesday of every month and by Supervisor Pam Slater-Price and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on the second Saturday of every month 4 – 8 pm.

Mingei International Museum exhibits folk art, craft and design from all eras and cultures of the world. Its two museums – in Balboa Park and downtown Escondido – feature Southern California’s largest and richest collection of mingei – art of the people. For more information, visit the Museum’s website: www.mingei.org