<\/p>\n
iSTART \u2014 The Answer at Twelve Lies in New Question Seeds<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The 12th iSTART Children\u2019s Art Festival will open on May 30, 2026, at the A4X Art Center, Luxelakes Art Expo Center. Now in its twelfth year, iSTART has entered its first \u201ccycle of life\u201d: evolving from a project in which children participated in curating, into a year-round incubation platform shaped by children\u2019s in-depth participation and co-creation\u00a0throughout the entire process. This\u00a0year\u2019s theme, \u201cSeeds\u00b7Archipelago\u00b7Wanderings\u201d, grows out of countless \u201cquestion seeds\u201d raised by children\u2014questions that have yet to be discovered, heard, or responded to. Through drifting, discussion, and co-creation, these questions gradually take root and grow into a series of interconnected islands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The exhibition \u201cSeeds\u00b7Archipelago\u00b7Wanderings\u201d is driven by the iSTART co-creation team. Focusing on education, public welfare, design, animation, reading, family games, and local culture, it presents a series of interdisciplinary co-creative projects that genuinely respond to children\u2019s questions. The islands grown from these \u201cquestion seeds\u201d take on diverse forms through different lines of inquiry and exploration: Xuexiao Island, co-created by children from cities and villages, imagines \u201cwhat if there were a place in the world with no homework?\u201d; Bulu Island grows from family stories that protect and nurture children\u2019s imagination; Fun Island invites families to see one another again and play together; Yuga Island follows children\u2019s exploration around an \u201calien sacred tree\u201d; Cat\u2019s Adventure Island uses animation to save stray cats; Buzhi Island opens up infinite ways of entering children\u2019s reading worlds; the Forest of Curious Questions discovers the natural and cultural forces of villages and cities; the Travelers\u2019 Corridor unfolds mysterious urban adventures; Echo Island releases and responds to children\u2019s inner voices; and Nothing-Lost Town reflects on loss and gain. As these islands connect with one another, they form an archipelago of individual imagination, family relationships, natural exploration, future learning, and local wisdom. This archipelago is not fixed in one time or place. It continues to grow across families, schools, communities, nature, and the children\u2019s museum, enabling genuine dialogue and co-creation through discussions and collaborations around different themes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This year\u2019s iSTART offers participants different levels of engagement: audiences may move from one site to another, experience workshops and courses, join learning communities, take part in initiating and shaping issues or projects, and grow from participants into creators, from speakers into those who give to others, and from connectors into co-builders. In addition to iSTART\u2019s signature gamified exhibition experience, this year\u2019s site will be transformed into a \u201c4D picture book\u201d. Hundreds of projects will be woven into one continuous story, allowing audiences to \u201cland\u201d on one island after another in an immersive exhibition space through multiple forms of reading, encounters with artworks, interactive creation, and game-based exploration. During the 90-day exhibition period, iSTART will collaborate with professional partners and children\u2019s communities across different fields to present four themed carnivals: the \u201cUpside down Theatre Carnival\u201d, the \u201cSparking\u00a0Maker\u00a0Carnival\u201d, the \u201cMoonbud Animation Carnival\u201d, and the \u201cReading Carnival\u201d. These carnivals will bring together diverse experiences and forms of creation, continuously renewing the ways visitors explore and experience the exhibition site. At the end of the exhibition period, the iSTART Education Forum\u00a0will also be held, offering participants a broad platform for exchange, learning, and co-creation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We look forward to welcoming more friends to wander through and join our \u201cSeeds Archipelago\u201d. Here, we do not rely on vague consensus. Instead, we believe that children are specific, whole, unique, and creative individuals. Through action, we respond to children\u2019s sincere questions, as well as to their courage and wisdom to make change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n — Li Jie<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":6604,"template":"","categories":[1,12],"exhibitions_category":[60],"class_list":["post-6603","exhibitions","type-exhibitions","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a4-art-museum","category-a4-kids","exhibitions_category-istart"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a4artmuseum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions\/6603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a4artmuseum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a4artmuseum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibitions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a4artmuseum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a4artmuseum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a4artmuseum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6603"},{"taxonomy":"exhibitions_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a4artmuseum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions_category?post=6603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}