Hastings Art Gallery: Return to a Playcentre from years ago

Children participating in a programme run by Frances at the Ashridge Road Playcentre. Photo Frances Martin/Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga

By Frances Martin, Hastings Art Gallery, Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga, audience and learning assistant.

OPINION

To the families who attend playcentres, they are a home away from home; a space where children and parents can be themselves, play, relax and find a supportive community.

So, as an educator, it’s a privilege to be invited to visit a playcentre and even more of a privilege to be invited to play alongside them — especially when you get to visit the one you grew up in.

I recently had the pleasure of going to Ashridge Road Playcentre in Napier on a warm spring Hawke’s Bay morning.

I arrived to find families sitting noisily around the child-sized kai tables, eating fruit and waffles. All I had brought along for the tamariki to play with was a box of creative supplies and some leftover odds and ends from other lessons. It was all we needed.

We soon decided that it was the perfect morning for painting in the sunshine, so we moved a table outside and set up the gear.

Children painting alongside Frances Martin from Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga at the Ashridge Road Playcentre. Photo / Frances Martin/Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga

I remember attending Ashridge Road as a preschooler. My memories are based around a small collection of old photographs and the stories my mum told me.

I remember the yellow slide and the Munch Bunch visor that I wore to a Christmas Party, circa 1987. The playcentre philosophy infused my childhood, home life and later, my own parenting.

It’s invaluable to my role at Hastings Art Gallery, too, to know how to play and engage creatively with preschool children. It’s nice to return to my old stomping ground, to appreciate where this journey began.

Playcentres are messy places. You get used to turning up in clothes that acquired stains on previous playcentre visits. Food colouring, paint (some shades are more vivid than others), sand and dirt. It’s good stuff, a great way to learn.

I always have a box of gear with me. Tempera paints blocks in the brightest shades, nestled into their messy paint trays. Cotton buds, cotton balls, and paper straws to use as paint brushes. A variety of paper, cardboard circles, old calculator rolls, some shiny cards, and a roll of yellow masking tape.

I have one water vessel and a pipette for water distribution. I try not to let the paint tray turn into potion play, so the water is distributed sparingly.

Our painting set-up began on the table, but we ended up crouching on the ground, with long strips of paper taped to a soft black mat with yellow masking tape.

Poppy, who had just turned 3, was busy painting the paper, but she then decided to paint herself. She was determined that she would become a bright green dinosaur. Poppy painted the back of my hand for me, too, dabbing away with a cotton ball, giving me a dinosaur’s scales.

As much as centres welcome me into their spaces, we welcome them into ours at the gallery, too. We want to ensure that, as a community, we encourage our next generation of confident creatives and gallery enthusiasts. It starts with me, a familiar face who turns up with a postcard of the gallery’s exterior.

If your playcentre or early childhood centre is interested in our education team visiting, or if you would like to visit us at Hastings Art Gallery, please contact the team at galleryeducatior@hdc.govt.nz.