So Giotto drew on rocks … Children’s Art, Creativity, and Everyday Democracy

[8 July 2005 - Demos Greenhouse - UK] This is an essay on children's art which formed the basis for Tom Bentley's recent speech at 'How old do you have to be to be an artist?' on Children's Art Day (Tate Modern, 30 June 2005). ... Children’s art is thus not solely about learning how to draw, paint, sculpt or work in any other media. To see the child as producing 'art' is to think of him or her as a conscious participant in what is essentially an adult process. Far better, instead, to think of what the child is getting out of its creative engagement and what, consequently, the effect might be as the child grows up. More