Children in Nature · Nature in Children
A five-country exploration of children in the natural world — and the nature within every child.
In 2027, Horizon O will bring together children, artists, educators, families and communities from Australia, China, Italy, Canada and the United States to explore nature in two interconnected ways: the world around children, and the nature that lives within them.
Across different landscapes and cultures, the project looks at how children encounter, explore and form relationships with the natural world, while also turning our attention to the curiosity, imagination, instinct and wonder that belong naturally to childhood.
At a time when technology and artificial intelligence are becoming an increasing part of children’s everyday lives, Children in Nature · Nature in Children asks us to notice what should not be lost: time to explore, freedom to wonder, meaningful relationships with the world around us, and space for children to simply be children.
Children and Artists in Dialogue
For the 2027 edition, the project will expand to bring professional artists into dialogue with children’s research, ideas and creative expressions.
Artists from different cultural and artistic contexts will be invited to respond to the same central theme through their own practices. These responses may take different forms — from installation, sound and moving image to material exploration, drawing, public art and participatory practice.
Some artistic works may develop through encounters with observations, sounds, images, materials and other traces gathered by children and communities across the participating countries. Rather than prescribing a single outcome, the project creates a shared proposition from which different artistic responses can emerge.
As the project moves between places, these responses may continue to evolve — shaped by new landscapes, communities and encounters along the way.
More Than an Exhibition
The project will unfold through a series of interconnected exhibitions, artist-led public programs, creative workshops, forums, professional exchanges and shared learning experiences across countries.
Children, families, educators, artists and wider communities will be invited into the project in different ways — not simply as audiences, but as participants in an evolving conversation around childhood, nature, art and place.
Adelaide will be the principal exhibition location and the central meeting point of the 2027 project, with additional exhibition programs planned in China and Italy. Participating schools and early learning communities have also been confirmed in Canada and the United States, with local exhibition possibilities continuing to be explored.
Rather than simply transporting the same exhibition from one place to another, each location has the possibility to shape what the project becomes. New voices, materials, observations and artistic responses may be gathered along the way, allowing the exhibition itself to evolve through the places and people it encounters.
Rather than presenting one universal view of childhood, the project brings together different landscapes, cultures, artistic practices and ways of seeing — creating a shared international conversation about children, nature, and what we choose to value and preserve for the future.
Five countries. Different landscapes. Different childhoods. One shared conversation.