Potential Space: A Serious Look at Child’s Play
About the Exhibition
Step into Potential Space: A Serious Look at Child’s Play, a powerful temporary art installation by acclaimed photographer Nancy Richards Farese. This inspiring exhibit celebrates the universality and profound impact of play, showcasing captivating photographs taken over sixteen years in fourteen different countries.
A common misconception about play is that it is unimportant. This exhibition is organized to promote play as a public value and suggests that we take play —the science, the social implications, and the wildly accessible benefits for health and well-being — much more seriously. Nothing lights up the brain like play, and here we invert the notion of adults teaching kids and instead let kids’ model for us how to use play to reduce stress, adapt to change, and have fun. This catalog of global play explores the culture, traditions, and universality of games. We know play when we see it, anywhere in the world.
About the Exhibition
- Witness the universality of play through photographs that capture the joy, creativity, and resilience of children from various cultures and backgrounds.
- Discover how play lights up the brain, reduces stress, and fosters adaptability and fun.
- Engage with the stories behind the photographs and reflect on the importance of play in your own life and community
About Nancy Richards Farese
Nancy Richards Farese is a photographer, artist, writer, and social entrepreneur. Founder of PhotoPhilanthropy (2009), and CatchLight (2015), her work explores the role of the arts and media in civil society and leveraging the power of visual storytelling for the social good. Nancy is an award-winning social documentary photographer, working with social development agencies to address social and political conditions globally. She has photographed with CARE International as a Photo Ambassador, with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, RefugePoint, and The Carter Center, among others. She is the author of Potential Space: A Serious Look at Child’s Play, published by MW Editions 2021. Her photography and writing have been widely published.
Nancy is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and The Harvard Kennedy School. She was a fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at The Harvard Kennedy School where she was teaching, writing, and researching the evolution of visual journalism and its impact on policy and academic discourse. Nancy is a 2023 MFA graduate of Maine Media Collage where she completed Add|Mix|Fold as her thesis work. She serves on the board of Southwire Company, the NPR Foundation, F3 Charitable Foundation and as Board Chair for CatchLight. She is originally from Carrollton, GA, and currently lives in Marin County, CA.
Call for submissions: Share your favorite photos that celebrate the joy and creativity of play
SBCM invites the community to be part of its upcoming exhibition celebrating the joy and creativity of play. Residents of all ages are encouraged to share personal photos that capture moments of play—whether it’s a child lost in imagination, a family game night, or a joyful leap in the park. These images will help illustrate the universal power of play in our lives and may be featured as part of the new exhibition.
Guidelines
– You must own the photos you submit.
– Subjects have consented to have their photograph taken.
– You may submit up to least three photos. The photos cannot exceed 5MB each and should be in JPG format. The photos must be in full
color and have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
– Please include photographer credit, identify the location, and any other pertinent information about the photos.
– We cannot accept photos that are heavily edited or created by AI.
– Please do not submit photos that endorse a business.
– By submitting your photos to us, you understand that we may use your photos in the exhibition, on our website, and on our social media pages.
Results
If your photos are selected for publication, you will be notified by email.
How to submit
Ready to submit your photos? Click the Submission Form button below to become a part of this exciting community-curated display!
Highlights
