The collection of the Toy Museum began "for fun" thanks to the passion for toys of the antique dealer Michele Chiesa in Bra. Michele Chiesa, was helped by his son Giovanni and for thirty years they managed to purchase objects, particular and rare pieces thus creating one of the most important collections in Piedmont which includes not only industrial or handicraft products, but also family and/ or popular products with features that are peculiar to the history of playing. At the beginning this collection was exhibited in the house of this antique dealer and since 2007, (when the collection was sold to the town) it has been located within the Cultural Centre Giovanni Arpino. In the new and current location games, dolls, miniature shops, tin figures and tin toys, wooden games and even the toys of the most recent past are exposed in six theme rooms : a reception room, a room for early childhood objects ant toys, the room of dolls, the school , boys’ games room, the theatre and comic book room . There is also a room/workshop that can be actively used by visitors: children can play there; mothers can breastfeed on a comfortable chair and workshops are organized for visiting school groups. In laboratories it is possible to build your own toy, also using recycled material, so that toys are not only objects of pure observation and contemplation they can also stimulate memories and recreational culture. And finally, in the showcases along the corridor leading to the exit and in the showcases in the external hall the toys donated to the Museum are displayed; there are many people who give their parents or grandparents’ childhood toys to the museum so that evidence of the recreational culture of the past can be appreciated.
