NOTE: Timeless Texas Toys has been exended from its original closing date. The exhibit will remain through Dec. 31, 2012.

"Timeless Texas Toys" explores the cultural values, ingenuity, art, and design expressed in handmade folk toys. In a child’s hands, folk toys, typically made of wood, clay, cloth or even corn husks, come to life in lands of make-believe, or serve to recreate in miniature the world around them. Toys not only reflect life and culture, they also teach it. Children everywhere learn about societal roles and cultural expectations through their toys as they grow into adulthood.  

 

Designed like a toymaker’s shop, the exhibit features Texas toymakers including paper doll illustrator Tom Tierney, Seguin-based toymaker Louis Dietz, and Margaret Brack, proprietor of San Antonio’s first known doll hospital, along with toys made by inventive children and loving family and friends. Not only may visitors explore the roots of historic folk toys and modern toys they inspired, but all can try their hand at making a toy, share stories about favorite childhood toys, and play with large-scale versions of folk toys from their, or perhaps their grandparents’ youth. (more)