ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on project On What Grounds, a collaboration between The Portman Early Childhood Centre, designer Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad and Serpentine Education. In the outdoor play space of the Portman Early Childhood Centre in North West London thick black iron railings separate the nursery from the surrounding streets. On What Grounds asks what if it were possible to move beyond nursery gates and the limits of formal playgrounds to open up local neighbourhoods as spaces for play. Through the Changing Play programme, Serpentine Education commissions artists to collaborate with children, parents and staff at the Portman, a state-maintained nursery school for 2 to 4 year olds, and develop projects that respond to local issues. It is part of a series of programmes at the Serpentine that takes seriously children and young people’s perspectives on the places and spaces they live in.
