As educators, parents, or mentors, we must first understand that the skills and interests necessary for mastery in a creative field are built through an imaginative and playful childhood. Support for such ideas begins by understanding the importance of play and incorporating art into an integral part of the educational experience, not as simply an after-thought or extra-curricular subject. Creative individuals draw from the experiences of childhood play as part of their earliest sources of ideas. Each of the artists in Art and Play expressed this sentiment. Most direct to the point, Oldenburg said, “All of my ideas are original. I came up with them when I was a kid.” As John-Steiner states, “Psychologists have long stressed the role of such childhood play and engagement as it continues to fuel the adult mind bent on overcoming the hold of the known.” In the extraordinary example of Mozart, John-Steiner presents an example of a gifted individual whose development flourished as a result of his childhood experiences.

1. Learning, playful learning, the chance to absorb at a young age specific stimulation, as was the case of Mozart, or more typically, an interest in learning and exploration that characterizes so many gifted individuals, may contribute to the fluency and ease in the work of some creative individuals. The flow of words, of visual associations, of musical themes, of scientific ideas, which are first experienced in the context of childhood wonder and games, may be part of informal apprenticeship that gives strength and support to mature individuals when struggling with the more complex aspects of their craft.
   

The development of a creative individual’s endurance stems from derived pleasures found in childhood work or play.

1. Should we not look for the first traces of imaginative activity as early as in childhood? The child’s best-loved and most intense occupation is with his play or games. Might we not say that every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or rather, rearranges the things of his new world in a new way which pleases him.
   

As with all creative individuals, imaginative activities were an essential component of every day life during childhood. Duchamp’s childhood passion for chess inspired several of his most important contributions to the art world — The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, exhibit announcement called Through the Big End of the Opera Glass, and Pocket Chess Set — in addition to numerous chess sets he designed or were designed for him by other colleagues. With a deeper understanding and respect for play, exploration and curiosity naturally occurs.

In Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga, 20th century Dutch historian, defines play as “a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that is different from ordinary life.” According to Huizinga, every language refers to play through several different word derivatives. Greek includes agon, in reference to a more competitive play with the guidance of set rules, and paideia, a more joyful childlike activity of exploring and make-believe that is often referred to in a child’s development of education and culture. Latin uses only one phrase, ludus, that captures all of the various forms of play. Ludus covers children’s games, recreation, contests, liturgical, and theatrical representations, and games of chance.” Using the Latin phrase, Homo Ludens, “Man the Player,” Huizinga describes play as an integral part in the everyday life of man, identifying the role of play in law, war, philosophy, poetry and art.

In his work, Huizinga also describes the correlation between play and aesthetics, which has always been closely associated with art.

1. The profound affinity between play and order is perhaps the reason why play… seems to lie to such a large extent in the world of aesthetics. Play has a tendency to be beautiful. It may be that this aesthetic factor is identical with the impulse to create orderly form, which animates play in all its aspects.
   

The creative impulse to organize through the means of art and play often occurs in a state of heightened awareness akin to a transcendent state. “…The play function is especially operative where mind and hand move most freely.” As Huizinga describes the optimal state of play, one can imagine a painter with a brush in hand, a musician at the piano or a sculptor working busily with clay, all in a transcendent state.