The Playful Places Network

The Playful Places Network is a community of practitioners, facilitators and organisations interested in advocating for the power and place of play. We support people working in, and with, museums, galleries and visitor attractions. We are interested in the interplay of our venues and the public realm.

Cultural venues provide a rich landscape for playing within, and playing cultivates a greater likelihood for immersion and engagement, making content accessible and meaningful.

The Playful Places Network comes together to explore a core belief in the value of play for all people, and to help ensure opportunity for it is diversified and supported. We particularly support children’s right to their freely-directed play, believing that play is vital for children’s well-being, learning and development of their sense of self.

Our mission is to build our sector’s understanding and confidence to value and support play, to learn together about creating the conditions for play, and to cultivate more well-being, joy, connection and creativity for all.

As an informal peer-support network, the aim is to bring people together and to share ideas and stories about projects or practice about play. A small voluntary team currently curates a programme of online talks, running from Autumn to Spring, and manages our webpages, with administrative support from Kids in Museums.