ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a philosophical elaboration of an approach that HKU (University of the Arts Utrecht in the Netherlands) has developed which embeds play in arts education. The conventions of contemporary everyday life prescribe that it is peculiar to speak about inner conversations and multiple voices. To make these voices heard again, students are given the task of mimicking Marcus Aurelius' diary and noting the inner conversations they have at particular moments during the day. By the time students come to study art, they have many years' education behind them. Education may be play-based in the early years but when children reach the age for formal schooling, they enter into a governmental system where a tighter focus on measurable achievement is often presumed to require a reduction in play-based practice. Since the aim of arts education is to equip students with capacity to reflect critically on the rapid changes in human society, the domain of play becomes a useful focus.
