Child Nation

Next date: Wednesday, 22 January 2025 | 05:00 PM to Sunday, 20 April 2025 | 11:59 PM

Image of Child playing- Photography by Vanessa Fernandez

Child Nation is a series of interactive experiences that engage children with their surroundings, celebrating their weirdest ideas and giving them permission to be themselves. Designed for kids between 7 and 11 years of age, the creative play program sets kids off on multiple choose-your-own adventures out in the real world.

Using an internet enabled device, children enter Child Nation by scanning a QR code on alluring signage. Each interactive story asks them simple and fun questions, and guides them to physically explore their environment, using their own answers to craft an individualised experience. Real places become weird and wonderful: a room can talk, a wall can hold a secret, a cup can have a personality.

Listening, searching and creating are all part of the journey. Liberated from the gaze of adults and encouraged to let their imaginations roam free, kids are guided to find wonder in places that might have otherwise been boring.

"It made me feel like I was on a trip somewhere." – Participant

"It’s like being inside your own story as you make it up." – Participant

"This is so good. I really found it transported me and was so engaged, even as an adult. Wonderful!" – Parent, Artground Singapore.

Adventure details and times

Gallery of Strange (Kingston City Hall, Ground Floor Café)
You have been appointed the gallery director of this place and anything can be your art. Stare at everyday objects for a little too long in order to see their weirdness, then assemble, name, label and price them before doing a guided tour of your gallery for an adult of your choice.
Ticket to Tiny Show (Kingston City Hall, Level 2 Lounge)
Choose a piece of architecture such as a pole or wall and with simple steps, discover you can develop a story as well as a character who knows its secrets. Have lines of text generated with your own ideas and use them for a super short performance. Make a ticket and rip it off as you greet your tiny audience of one.

You can experience these adventures in Kingston City Hall:
- School Holidays: Mon – Fri, 10am – 4pm
- School Term: Mon – Fri, 3pm – 5pm
Party of Ghosts (Kingston Arts Centre Chamber, top floor)
Imagine what type of landscape might have been here before this building was here, then imagine a secret creature, family or society that still lives here, invent ceremonies for them and leave a note as an offering.

You can experience this adventure in Kingston Arts Centre:
- School Holidays: Mon – Fri, 10am – 4pm
- School Term: Wed – Sat, 11am – 4pm
My Yokai (Courtyard, between the City Hall and Arts Centre buildings)
Feel the world around you alive with animistic figures inspired by Japanese culture. Identify a face in a wall, intuit a Yokai tugging at your sleeve then make a small shrine to remember.
That Tree Just Talked (Courtyard, between the City Hall and Arts Centre buildings)
Notice things that are massive and things that are tiny as you tune-in to an outdoor space. Then imagine you can camouflage and from your hiding place, listen to imaginary voices of non-human things, invent relationships between them

You can experience these adventures in the Courtyard anytime!

Artist Profile

Jessica Wilson is an established artist with a practice in image-based theatre and participative art. She conceives, produces and directs projects which respond to people and places and which are defined by strong aesthetic languages and ambition in purpose. Her strength is in marrying poetics and pragmatics – bringing together artists, non-artists and non-arts industries and technologies in unusual experiences, which engage with broad audiences.

Her existing suite of projects build on a long history of theatre works for young people presented by Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Artplay, national festivals and international venues including the New Victory in NY, Redmoon in Chicago, and Le Coups De Theatre in Montreal.