All The Things: Exploring play and imagination across generations

All The Things is an inter-generational exhibition by artists Abigail Hunt, Lucy McDonald and Matt Shaw. The artists collaborated with people from across the Richmond borough, aged from six months to ninety-four. Together, they explored one shared question: how can play and imagination transform everyday life?

The project generates from the core belief that imagination is a powerful resource that everyone holds. It can grow, overlap, contradict, evolve and surprise us, no matter our age or background.   

Throughout the making of this exhibition, groups – including Age UK, primary school children and gallery volunteers – worked side by side. They talked, played, drew, moved, experimented with materials and reflected on their own experiences. Each group brought its own knowledge, energy and way of seeing the world, which in turn shaped the direction of the work.  

All the Things does not tell a single story. It brings many ideas together. These ideas are not fixed or finished, they continue to shift and develop, just as imagination does when people connect and learn from one another.  

You are invited to explore the exhibition in your own way slowly, boldly, quietly or playfully. Follow your curiosity. Notice what catches your eye. Let imagination guide you. 

Artists & Contributors  

Created by artists Abigail Hunt, Lucy McDonald and Matt Shaw, working collaboratively with children, young people and adults from:  

Curious Tots, Orleans House Gallery  

Ham Children’s Centre  

Age UK Richmond  

Orleans House Gallery Volunteers  

St Richard’s Primary School, Ham  

Culture 4 Keeps and the Children in Care Council  

Achieving for Children

What is Play & Imagine?