materiality

Junk food, crisps and fizzy drinks: children and distinctions of taste

Exhibition / By

“Small wonder that now everyone eats the same junk food and watches the same junk programmes, in a culture where children’s tastes came so conspicuously to dominate.” Quote: Mary Warnock, The Observer, 20 March 1983. Photograph: Science Museum, 1999-278. In the 1980s, newspapers decided to put what children ate on the table. “The children’s economy …

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Roller skates, playfulness, and boundaries of childhood

Exhibition / By

“We have evolved, it seems, into a generation of Peter Pans, perpetually stuck in adolescence. You see them in Hyde Park: thirty and fortysomethings on rollerblades and skateboards, hanging out in Glastonbury or discussing the merits of Oasis vs Blur at dinner parties” Quote: Dave Green, The Guardian, 25 November 1995. Photograph: Lakeland Motor Museum …

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“Those great social levellers” Children, fashion, and class

Exhibition / By

“Inhabitants of the new childhood look more like mini adults, but that is because new parents like to dress like children. See the family in the park in their brightly coloured jogging suits, anoraks, and those great social levellers, trainers.” Quote: Lesley Garner, Daily Telegraph, 4 November 1986. Image: V&A Museum, T.980:1, 2-1994. A major …

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