Designing the Creative Child

Amy F. Ogata is associate professor at the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture in New York City. She is the author of Art Nouveau and the Social Vision of Modern Living and has published widely on modern architecture and design.

"At a time when the news media is again concerned about a crisis in American creativity, schools are cutting funding for arts education, major foundations are modeling ways that students and teachers might ‘play’ with new media, and museums worry about declining youth attendance, Designing the Creative Child makes an important intervention, reminding us that these debates build upon a much longer history of efforts to support and enhance the creative development of American youth. I admire this fascinating, multidisciplinary account which couples close attention to the design of everyday cultural materials with an awareness of the debates in educational theory, public policy, children’s literature, and abstract art which informed them." -Henry Jenkins, Editor, The Children's Culture Reader"Amy Ogata’s Designing the Creative Child is an exceptionally interesting book on the development of both child psychology and playthings in America during the baby boom years following World War II. A delightfully educational book."-Life Long Dewey (blog)"Amy Ogata . . . argues that American worries about conformity-as well as the nation’s Cold War rivalry with the totalitarian Soviet Union-persuaded parents that their children’s creative impulses could, and should, be encouraged."-Boston Globe"This well-researched and clearly written history of the responses of designers and architects to advice from psychologists on ways to encourage creativity in young children in Cold War America is a welcome addition to cultural history, architectural and design history, the study of material culture, and child psychology. [Ogata’s] broad knowledge of art and architecture contributes to the success of her foray into the history of toys, playrooms, playgrounds, schoolrooms, and children’s museums."-Journal of American History"An insightful investigation into the development and marketing of objects and spaces for children aimed at satisfying parental desires to promote creativity in the children of mid-century America."-Art Libraries Society of North America"Featuring extensive illustrations of toy advertisements, product designs, and blueprints, this highly informative book has an extensive bibliography and notes."-CHOICE"Designing the Creative Child is a valuable and inspiring resource for scholars and professionals in child related research."-The Architect’s Newspaper"Ogata’s book is well researched, well written, and beautifully illustrated-and truly innovative in its depiction of how a generation of toy designers, architects, and museum curators gave shape to their faith in youthful creativity."-American Journal of Play"Lucid and engaging, Ogata’s assiduously researched study sheds a much-needed light on its origins and development and contributes significantly to our understanding of everyday design in the dynamics of postwar cultural change."-Buildings & Landscapes"Ogata brings her research together in an exciting way by examining childhood creativity as an idealized attribute developed in the multi-faceted dimensionality of material culture-from television programming and toy design to suburan homes, school buildings and museum exhibition design. The book is richly illustrated and is in conversation with other multi-disciplinary books that address aspects of the post-war era, consumerism, architecture, suburbia and school design."-Journal of Design History"This study offers us innovative ways of understanding efforts to shape childhood that we might consider adopting more fully."-Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth"A tight, timely study."-Art Review"An important contribution."-Winterthur Portfolio"Beautifully illustrated and superbly written."-Daniella On Design

• ContentsIntroduction: Object Lessons1. Constructing Creativity in Postwar America2. Educational Toys and Creative Playthings3. Creative Living at Home4. Building Creativity in Postwar Schools5. Learning Imagination in Art and ScienceEpilogue: The Legacy of Consuming CreativityAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex