This is a repost from the Centre for Research in Arts, Creativity and Literacies (CRACL) blog. The original post was written by Pat Thomson, Professor of Education within the School of Education, University of Nottingham (UK).  We have been conducting an evaluation of learning in the Serpentine’s World without Walls programme. We have just reported on our interim results from an examination of two projects. One was the first instalment of Changing Play, a project conducted in partnership with the Portman Children’s Centre. Anton Franks did this first set of research. His investigation of the work that artist Albert Potrony did suggests the following benefits for children: awareness and understanding of a range of materials and objects, manipulative skills in handling large and small materials and objects, and ability to conceptualise them in form and use imaginative development in the interaction with materials, objects and other children, allowing experimentation in applying and combining of materials. linguistic development in the use of words, utterances and in the…