“My kid could have done that” is one of the oldest art clichés around – managing to both dismiss radical new ideas and slip in an assumption that children’s art is worthless, all in one cheap shot.

We tend to be comfortable with the idea that creating art has great psychological and educational benefits for young people – and adults, of course – and so we (rightly) encourage our children to create art for those reasons. But when it comes to what they actually make, we don’t often think of it as actual "art" (short, perhaps, of the odd child star who goes viral).

Children are masters of the make believe — in their minds chairs become horses, sofas become race cars, ladders become spaceships. Put a pencil in their hands and their art is equally spontaneous and playful. But this same instinctive creativity is what leads us to treat their creations as nothing more than keepsakes, or at best a temporary update for the fridge door.

In the late 19th century there was another peak in artists' interests in children’s creativity. Reflecting the colonialist views of the time, primitivists such as Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin turned to non-Western art for inspiration as a way of breaking away from the stuffy, academic and over-cultivated Western art scene. They considered non-Western art less developed, closer to nature, and more "pure” or simple. They developed a style that they believed reflected this “simplicity”, and also looked to self-taught artists, folk art, and work made by children for inspiration. In this sense, childhood was seen as the ‘primitive’ prehistory of the adult.

Still – despite their positive view of children’s perspective and self-expression, child art was not thought of as “true art”. This was exclusively for adults, whose ability to analyse what they are doing and why they were doing it was, and still is, seen as key. This attitude hasn’t gone away; we still all too readily judge child art against our own adult standards.

In the present day, many artists are inspired by the creativity of young people and seek to inspire that still vital child in themselves – or, as Ruskin would have said, to retrieve the “condition of childhood”. In the 1980s Keith Haring painted a number of his large banners with a teenager named LA2, and he drew one of his last series of etchings together with a nine-year old boy named Sean Kalish.

How these artists have looked at and been inspired by the art of children is a great start. The next step is for us to celebrate it in its own right.

That means respecting children’s art as having its own distinct value, and equipping young artists with opportunities to know, understand, exchange and develop cultural expressions amongst and for themselves.

Rafael Goldin, film director and founder of the The International Museum of Children's Art summed up the need for his museum and the argument for more spaces like it to exist when he said:

"It is said that children are people. But, people do not exist without a culture. Children are people who belong to the future. And they have the right to their own culture, their own art and history."

Children are people, not pre-people, and their creativity forms a crucial part of the diverse range of human expression. The art world is poorer when we ignore, exclude or ‘other’ aspects of creativity from our history and experience of art-making. In my view, trying to appreciate art made by children opens our minds to better understanding and respect for all art, all children, and all artists. Let’s build a richer art world that respects and celebrates children’s part in human creativity.

“Not every child needs to become an artist — but every child deserves to explore themselves through art.”
— Chengying Pan, Founder of Gallery Yoo

Before founding Gallery Yoo, Chengying Pan held one clear belief: Art should not be limited to techniques — it should be a path for children to understand themselves, express their inner world, and grow as individuals.

She believes true art education doesn’t teach children to copy what they see, but to courageously imagine, express, and create from their unique point of view.

Rooted in her long-standing interest in art, philosophy, and child psychology, she developed a distinctive educational approach — blending artistic creation with emotional awareness, allowing every child to reconnect with their instincts and authentic self through art.

She strongly opposes standardized art training and instead promotes a creative environment where children experience unity between self and expression — where brush, body, and emotion flow together.

With that vision, she co-founded Gallery Yoo alongside like-minded partners, hoping to reshape the landscape of children’s art education in China, and inspire a new generation to create, feel, and see the world differently.