Children are geniuses of play. In the smallest of spaces they can create their own place. And give them proper tools; they can even produce art that can help adults understand each other better. By observation of this truth, in 1985 at the suggestion of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) President Daisaku Ikeda, the “World Boys and Girls Art Exhibition” was inaugurated.

A collection comprising more than 100,000 artworks, contains not only the overflowing energy and innocence of youth, but also speaks freedom, being created with no hint of studied technique. The works are full of beauty, are powerfully moving and are filled with the vibrancy of life. And more than anything, they speak of the joy that blossom when war ends. It is the organizers’ hope that the exhibition will serve as a site of rediscovery for adults. Putting grown-ups in touch with their common humanity. An important message contained in World Boys and Girls Art Exhibition is the freedom of expression that the pictures and drawings represent. Indeed, there are many children in the world who are unhappy because there is no peace and stability in their world, or worse, because they have no freedom even to draw.

For instance, paintings submitted by children in Afghanistan after the bombing began took on a particularly poignant light. One painting portrays a mother veiled in a shroud hugging a crying child, and another depicts a weeping mother holding a child to her breast. In Bangkok, Thailand, one visitor to the exhibition commented on the way the paintings expressed the deep longing of the young Afghan artists for a society at peace where mothers and children no longer shed tears.