Sit Down
Seating for Kids
6 February - 5 September
Cosco Booster seat, early 1970s (click image for larger version)
When is a seat not just for sitting on? When it’s for play, for eating, for learning or even for a quick snooze of course! Taking the classic children's tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears as a starting point, major new exhibition Sit Down: Seating for Kids invites the visitor to consider just what makes the perfect seat. Is it comfort? Style? Ease of use?
Spanning four centuries, Sit Down features over 70 examples of seating made for children, ranging from school chairs to armchairs, saddles to swings, highchairs to potties. Designs by Charles Eames and El Ultimo Grito are on display, as well as the Modernist highchair by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld and Spotty, a 1960s paper chair designed by Peter Murdoch.
Ideas around the growing popularity of designer seating specifically for children as well as how and why styles have changed over the centuries are also considered.
Supported by Ercol Furniture Ltd
Sit Down: Themes
Until 5 September 2010
What makes the perfect seat? Comfort... Style... Ease of use? Sit Down: Seating for Kids is organised into the following themes; What is a seat? Who are seats for? (including Eating and pooping, Learning, On the move, Resting and Playing) and How are seats made?, charting the history of chairs, from 1680 to the present day.
