The exhibition “My dear – children’s toys from prehistory to the present day” was realized with the funds of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, and is a joint project of the National Museum Zaječar, National Museum Požarevac, Museum of Krajina Negotin, Regional Museum of Jagodina, Homeland Museum of Knjaževac and Museum of Srem Sremska Mitrovica.
The exhibition premiered at the end of December 2018 at the National Museum in Zaječar, which is also the holder of this project. After Zaječar, the exhibition was opened at the Regional Museum in Jagodina, and then continued its journey to other cities whose museums collaborated on the project.
The aim of this exhibition is to present toys that are kept in museums in their collections, covering a wide period of time from prehistory to the present day. The interpretation used a multidisciplinary approach, because the toys were viewed from the angle of archaeology, ethnology, history, art history, sociology … In this way, different functions of toys were pointed out, from the didactic one, to the functioning of the toy as a status symbol of the parents, which is a phenomenon that is still present today.
In a broader context, this exhibition actually presents the world of the child and childhood, the path that the child took through the centuries to enter the world of adults. Whether precious, a reflection of the status and power of parents or a rag, handmade, the toy is an inseparable part of every child’s childhood.