A free exhibit to explore the concepts that connect people’s memories and nostalgia attached to various childhood toys will be presented through March 22 on the Puyallup campus in the Arts and Allied Health Building. The on-campus art exhibit, Toybox, is crafted by the artist, Jackson.  

The big piece shown, Toybox 002, is a design that shows many toys inside a toybox. Some popular items being shown include a Troll doll, Transformer, and Tamagotchi. 

Jackson said the inspiration behind these pieces is a family with a son and daughter, and their toybox has spilled to create nostalgic chaos, and this gallery is a display of toys the boys and girls would play with.  

These toys were people’s first form of universal communication, where kids from various backgrounds could gather to just have fun.  

“By revisiting toys, we once held, cherished, or longed for, Toybox reflects on the common ground of childhood that unites us,” said Jackson. 

Another interesting piece is Accessories 001. This shows an assortment of shoes and other girls’ toy accessories, along with some boys’ toys scattered near the bottom of the canvas. 

“So many lessons we learn as kids are shown to us by the usage of toys in our developmental years,” Jackson said.  

He explained that toys carry people’s first dreams, lessons, and ideas about who they might become.  

Toys are a tool in how people learn about the world, how to have communications in it, and the roles they want to play in it.