Boorai - The Children's Art Gallery

Another Place Like Here : Young Children's Images of the Future
An exhibition...

Another Place Like Here focuses on young children's ideas about the future, both personal and global. It involves children aged between 3 and 12 years, from Australia, UK, Italy, USA, China and Singapore. All of whom were encouraged "to perceive a connection between their own futures and the global future as well as their role in shaping it" (Page. J (1998)"The Four and Five Year Old's Understanding of the Future. A preliminary study." Futures. Vol. 30. No.9, p 914).

The 100 stories and images presented within this exhibition demonstrate how connected young children are to the realities of life and living and how easily they transfer these understandings into the realm of play and fantasy. It is interesting to note that a number of children comment on the need to care for the environment and present creative solutions such as pollution control, storing water, growing trees, flying cars and reconciliation.

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Gallery:

Brandon 5 yrs (Singapore) "In the future there will be flying cars because the roads are too crowded."	Xin Xingye 5 yrs (China) "I am riding the luminescent bike invented by myself - looking at stars and the moon. The birds cannot find the way home. I use my bike to lead the way for them while a firefly takes a lantern to help."	Shi Yihao 5 yrs (China) "Now the Earth is getting more polluted. It is becoming difficult for people to survive on the Earth. We may live on the moon in future. We will use windmills to make electric power and deliver the power everywhere by a system that keeps the moon from being polluted."	Tay Wei Xuan 6 yrs (Singapore) "A money chair. Because I am going to be a business man so my bodyguards will help me build a money chair. The chair will cost $90."
Josie 4-5 yrs (Australia) "In the future there will be broken robots, factories, pollution and dead animals. There will be a paradise island where smart people thought the world would change so they stored lots of water and food. There will also be reconciliation."	Li Shuang/Li Li 6yrs (China) "In the future I will plant a magic fruit tree. It can grow all kinds of fruit I prefer."	Jake 5 yrs (Australia) "I'm going back to the bush. I'll light a fire and go spearing kangaroos."	Tahlia 7 yrs (Australia) "In the future there will be babies being born".
Neradine 7 yrs (Australia) "All the trees will be cut. But some left. They make new houses. New people come. When new people come we make new friends and they will make new schools, learning more education. I want to be a painter, making money. Work all the time. Make sure I don't miss out on work."	Lawrence 5 yrs (Australia) "In the future there will be a telephone with words and letters instead of numbers."	Louise 10 yrs (Australia) "The Aboriginals will be hunting for food. I'll be living in the bush 'cause I used to live in the bush at Mona Mona. I want to go back to the bush to do paintings, 'cause in the bush you can feel the fresh air come in and you can go hunting for kangaroos. We make a fire, all of us kids take the skin off. We eat the tail, chop it up, we eat the leg. If I want to do painting I go sit at the old church."	Alex 5 yrs (Australia) "There will be no lawnmowers and no knocking down buildings and no picking of flowers growing."

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