Children's art show opens in Liangjiang

A children's art exhibition has opened at Yuelai Museum in Liangjiang New Area, offering a glimpse into how young children process their inner worlds and providing profound insights for adults navigating their feelings. 

Don't Drown, Float with Us features a vivid array of ceramics, paintings, poetry, and interactive works by children from St Lakeshore Kindergarten, revealing how they recognize, confront, and make peace with their feelings.

The exhibition's title captures a philosophical idea, explains kindergarten principal Qiao Zheng. "We acknowledge water as an inevitable, vital part of life, and emotions are exactly the same," Qiao says. "To float means to coexist with them; to accept their ebb and flow without being overwhelmed."

The show opens with two striking works in which young artists kneaded intangible mental states into a collection of ceramics and a large-scale visual piece. Every uneven clay surface and bold brushstroke becomes a physical portrait of joy, fear, frustration, or calm, rendering internal experiences tangible. Further into the gallery, a painting series titled Too Scaring depicts children confronting raw childhood terrors, from the bared teeth of sharks to shadowy, ghostly figures.

The painting series Too Sacring reveals childhood terrors. [Photo by St Lakeshore Kindergarten] 

While the first half of the exhibition explores how children experience emotions, the second examines how they resolve them.

A section titled When Emotions Conflict features three interactive works designed to untangle emotional frictions. Among them is a conflict-resolution box created by K3 pupils, whose expanding social lives mean emotions are beginning to intertwine with friendship, compromise, and disagreement. 

The children discovered the nature of conflict and co-created a six-step framework for reconciliation based on expression, listening, verification, and negotiation. Each step is housed in a handcrafted box containing actionable advice.

In the first step, To Calm Down, pupils list their own soothing rituals, such as watching a windmill spin in the breeze. The third step, a box titled the Magic Responsibility Mirror, contains thoughtful insights, including a reminder that speaking only your own truth can leave others feeling hurt.

A "Best Friend Again" note: hand-written by children to end a playground dispute and seal their friendship. [Photo by St Lakeshore Kindergarten] 

The exhibition closes with the children's vivid reflections, proving that what feels overwhelming to adults can become gentle and playful from a child's perspective. On overcoming unhappiness, one child writes: "When I'm sad, I listen to music, rub my tummy, roll around on the floor, and then I'm fine." Another offers an insightful perspective on fear: "Being afraid might even be a good thing. It gives us a chance to beat fear, so there is less of it in the world." 

The displays grew out of the kindergarten's annual Children and Philosophy program, an initiative that weaves universal, urgent philosophical questions into everyday learning and artistic creation.

Against a modern backdrop of rising emotional struggles, the 2026 initiative equips children with the tools to navigate complex feelings in healthy ways. Qiao says, "We hope the exhibition also speaks to caregivers and the wider public, reminding them that all emotions deserve attention, acceptance, and gentle care."

The exhibition runs until June 30 with free admission.