LAWRENCE, KS.- The Spencer Art Museum presents Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood, on view through January 24, 2009. Toys are more than fun. As cultural artifacts, they embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation, speaking to the global relevance of play and the imagination across cultures. Drawn from the Hyeon Tae-Joon Collection, this exhibition—a veritable toy box of more than 90 vibrantly colored Korean action figures, robots, miniature tanks, and paper dolls from the 1970s and ’80s—captures a time when Korea was undergoing economic and social flux. While many of the toys featured were appropriated from American and Japanese toy designs, they were often reinvented to reflect an emerging commercial world of Korean comics as seen in the popular animated series Robot Taekwon V. Toy Stories was organized by The Korea Society, New York City.

The Spencer will offer a variety of public programming in conjunction with the exhibition, including a couple of children’s art appreciation classes, a student night, a screening of Robot Taekwon V, a gallery talk with curator Kris Imants Ercums, and a family program with art activities and a screening of the film now-classic Disney/Pixar film Toy Story. With the exception of the children’s classes, which carry a small charge, all programs are free.