Our final Spin visit of the year takes us to the Talbot Rice Gallery to see their new exhibition The Children are Now, where we’ll be joined by curator James Clegg.
The Children are Now is a group exhibition exploring how children relate to the big challenges we face today. Through artworks that capture the power of children’s imagination and play, it looks at themes such as apartheid education, war games and generational trauma. The exhibition asks how history keeps repeating itself, even though children have the creativity to imagine a different future. Artists include Bob and Roberta Smith, Francis Alys, Monster Chetwynd, Tuan Andrew Nguyen and Ane Hjort Guttu.
There is also a growing movement that challenges the way society sees and treats children. Known as ‘childism’, this approach highlights and tackles discrimination against children, encouraging us to rethink their role in society and value their perspectives as vital to understanding the world. This idea gained real momentum in 2024 when Scotland made the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child part of national law, giving children stronger legal rights and greater recognition as individuals in their own right.
