Ai Weiwei: Let kids discover creativity, don't correct their drawings
03.11.2026
Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei says kids should be given the greatest possible freedom to discover their artistic talents.
Don't correct youngsters while they are painting or drawing, he says. “Whatever advice you give the child at that point is already completely wrong,” he told a local German newspaper. “Because there are no mistakes in art. Why does everyone think that?”
A wrong stroke is precisely the moment when a mistake becomes art, Ai told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “All art begins with a mistake – otherwise it’s not art, but decoration. You’re trying to destroy your children’s ability to create real art. You tell the child to do it better, and that’s wrong. This whole approach to education is completely wrong,” he added.
When kids draw something, Ai questions what adults often think, that they are “pursuing a specific intention.”
“Nevertheless, children are constantly taught to avoid ‘mistakes’ in order to achieve something ‘better’. As if one could know in advance what is better and what isn’t," says Ai. "This is already training them in self-censorship.”
Ai has been living in Europe since 2015, spending time in many places including Germany, Portugal and Britain.
The artist has exposed how censorship operates globally through corporations, social media, and democratic institutions in his wider work.
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