Toyland

A playful and cultural event entitled “Toyland” was held on Friday, January 04, 2019, at the Museum of Traditional Toys of Sardinia and in the square in front of the small hamlet of Zeppara in the municipality of Ales.

The event desired by the municipal administration of Ales and organized by the Cultour Società Cooperativa Sociale Onlus, which is responsible for museum management, developed the program to enhance the museum as a place and institution deputed to the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage of the traditional game of Sardinia. The museum was born out of a school project, carried out in the first half of the 1990s, for the study of poor materials; it was inaugurated as a permanent exhibition in 2002 and is now a well-established and widely known institution at the regional level.

The event thus represented an evolution of the work done so far in previous years: a project to promote the preserved heritage that goes beyond the museum structure to connote the place, the territory and the village, in which it is located; to identify the small hamlet of Zeppara as “Toyland.”

It was an event also dedicated to children and the inhabitants of Zeppara and Ales, open to the public with the opportunity to visit the museum, participate in workshops, and attend the demonstration for the creation and affixing of the first plaque identifying a street in the center with an odonym related to the theme of traditional Sardinian play. An afternoon of celebration, participation and involvement; principles, too, belonging to that past of which the Toy Museum wants to preserve and hand down memory.

Throughout the event, the museum remained open to the public with guided tours; children were able to participate in the educational workshop, toy exchange and donation.