“Playgrounds & Toys” Exhibition at the Benaki Museum Athens
ART for The World Donates “Playgrounds & Toys”
Collection to the Benaki Museum in Athens
PLAYGROUNDS & TOYS
Opening October 29, 2025
Benaki Museum Athens
Pireos 138 Annex
138 Pireos & Andronikou St., 118 54 Athens, Greece
ART for The World is proud to announce the donation of its acclaimed “Playgrounds & Toys” collection to the prestigious Benaki Museum in Athens. This ongoing project, which began in 2000, comprises more than 50 models and drawings of playgrounds and toys created by renowned contemporary artists and architects from diverse continents and generations. Originally launched for the 50th Anniversary of UNHCR, the “Playgrounds & Toys” initiative highlights the power of play to foster social bonds, rebuild trust, and promote inclusivity through art and design.
The Benaki Museum will showcase this landmark donation at its Pireos 138 Annex starting October 29, 2025, offering visitors a rare opportunity to explore two decades of creative interpretations of play spaces and objects. By integrating these works into its permanent holdings, the Benaki Museum underscores the enduring influence of art in building bridges across cultures and generations.
This contribution represents a significant enrichment of the museum’s already invaluable collections and reinforces the role of art as a universal language. The “Playgrounds & Toys” collection at the Benaki Museum invites audiences to engage with innovative playground concepts and toy designs that embody the themes of community, resilience, and inclusivity.
Time is the child’s kingdom,
said the Greek philosopher Heraclites.
The possibility to play freely during childhood,
to “construct” and “destroy”,
and to let one’s imagination develop its magical powers
is a fundamental right of every human being,
too often denied in many areas of our world, rich or poor.
Playgrounds & Toys is a fully sustainable and innovative contemporary art project that offers tangible support to existing schools, orphanages and local communities in order to improve the welfare and upbringing of children and as well of all those with little or no access to such facilities, throughout the world.
ART for The World provides these schools and communities with both indoor and outdoor playgrounds, promoting the education of the children and assisting in their personal rehabilitation, keeping them stimulated, encouraging the development of cultural and personal identity, and, most important, adding joy to their lives.
With great sensibility and in accordance to the project’s guidelines, over eighty young or well-known artists, architects and designers from all over the world have collaborated with ART for The World since 2000 and on to create unique designs for playgrounds and educational toys for children, that are simple and inexpensive to construct and that strictly abide by standard safety requirements. The playground designs, in the form of 1:15 scale models, are a collection of over 50 models shown in traveling exhibitions around the world.
The Playgrounds have been fabricated for schools and communities, so far in India, United Kingdom, Armenia, Greece and China as well as collective toys have been distributed in the refugee camps in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Tanzania with the help of UN Agencies.
Benaki Museum Athens
Pireos 138 Annex
138 Pireos & Andronikou St., 118 54 Athens, Greece
For more details please go to: https://www.artfortheworld.net/playgrounds-toys
ART for The World
Art for The World is a Platform for Art & Culture and Ecosystem, inspired by Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”