MANIFESTOS (or, Tell Us What You Really Think)

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Permalink Reply by David Harradine on March 16, 2011 at 23:23

A 10 point manifesto on creating art for children

1.    You must explore anything you want to explore and you must say anything you want to say.

2.    You must find the right way to explore it and the right way to say it, and you must remember that the right way for a 2 year old will not be the same as the right way for a 7 year old.

3.    You must remember that you are not a child, and you must learn as much as you can about what it means to be a child.  But you must also remember that artists are actually professional children hidden in the bodies of adults.

4.    You must be stubborn, charming, argumentative, inquisitive, questioning, pushing, playful, and firm, because you must get what you want for your work because you have to love the way you work.

5.    You must remember that it’s just as important that you love your work as it is for your work to be loved by a child.

6.    You probably really have to love children.

7.    You must bring all your top tricks, cannyist ploys, secret weapons and superpowers to bear on what you do, because children see everything and they will find you out if you do not.

8.    You must remember that children see everything, and that this makes them the best audience, and the most demanding audience:  the best audience.

9.    You must never think that anything other than your best work will do, and you must never allow anyone else to tell you that anything other than your best work will do, and when you are asked to do your best work, or when you set out to do your best work, you need to make sure you ask for what you need in order for you to do your best work, because if you don’t ask for it, demand it, you probably won’t get it, and you need to get it.

10.    You must totally disregard points 1 to 9 because you must work out for yourself why it is important to you to be involved in making work for children; and to forge your own way, because that will be the right way, much more right than mine.

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