The Playground Project Melbourne
28 June 2025 - 12 October 2025
Curator: Gabriela Burkhalter
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Location: Incinerator Gallery
Use code EARLYBIRD for 25% off tickets. Hurry, early bird special is limited.
The Playground Project Melbourne is an interactive, international travelling exhibition with a playground takeover. It explores a unique chapter of late 19th century to early 21st century art, design, urbanism and activism; and strives to inspire local audiences, children, students, city planners, artists and designers to imagine a bright and brilliant future for play and playground design.
Unlike any other exhibition, young visitors are invited to climb, crawl, fall and imagine their way through a whimsical and colourful exhibition display and interact with the magical playgrounds that sit at the heart of this project and takeover the Incinerator Gallery's indoor and outdoor spaces. An ambitious program of educational and public events over 22 weeks will foster community engagement, art and design exploration, and inspire children to live, learn and play creatively in our parks, cities and suburbs.
A brief history
The last 150 years have witnessed four phases in the art and development of playground design. The first, dating from 1880, saw social reformers take children off the streets and onto playgrounds. The second, going strong during the 1930s, nurtured the belief – especially in Scandinavia – that children play best in a natural setting. From 1968 onwards, local community groups and creative collectives began to build their own playgrounds fuelled by a sense of self-empowerment and the proliferation of self-help books. The fourth phase, launched by the economic challenges and reforms of the 1980s, heralded the decline of utopian thought in art and design, and the state’s role as commissioner and caretaker of playgrounds in urban spaces. This onset of a crisis in urban planning and playground design continues even today to challenge communities across many cultures, languages, social systems, economic and political realities worldwide.
The exhibition brings together carefully selected photographs, videos, archival materials and texts of key case-studies from Continental Europe, United Kingdom, America, Asia, Africa and Australia. They are featured alongside three playground displays, where kids are invited to kinetically engage with the ideas and enjoy real-time play and interaction.
Stayed tuned for information about special events for families, schools, art and design enthusiasts.
Curated by Gabriela Burkhalter
Exhibition design by BoardGrove Architects
Produced by Incinerator Gallery
Gabriela Burkhalter is a Swiss urban planner and political scientist specialising in play, architecture, and public space through curatorial research and advisory work. Since 2008, she has documented the history of playgrounds through her virtual archive, Architektur für Kinder: The Playground Project. She is also the curator and editor of The Playground Project, a travelling exhibition an exhibition catalogue (Park Books, Zurich, 2023, 3rd ed.). In June 2025, The Playground Project makes its Asia-Pacific debut at Incinerator Gallery in Melbourne, Australia.
Kunsthalle Zürich (founded in 1985) is Switzerland’s leading experimental art space, spearheaded by Daniel Baumann from 2015 to 2025. Located in the Swiss capital’s Löwenbräukunst cultural complex, each year it showcases six to ten site-specific contemporary art exhibitions that foster critical dialogue between visual art practitioners, the public and the institution. As an independent art space without a permanent collection, it is operated by the Verein Kunsthalle Zürich (Kunsthalle Zürich Association). It is supported by members, patrons, sponsors, and generously funded by Stadt Zürich Kultur (City of Zürich Culture) and Kanton Zürich Fachstelle Kultur (Canton of Zürich Culture Department).
BoardGrove Architects is a Melbourne-based, award-winning creative architecture and design studio established in 2016 by Holly Board and Peter Grove. Leading projects include NGV Triennial Outdoor Pavilions, MPavilion Stool Dolly (now part of Powerhouse Museum’s Permanent Collection) and their recent appointment as members of the winning multidisciplinary design team of the new NGV Contemporary.
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