Children explore art works at the exhibition. Photo: courtesy of the museum

A new exhibition featuring art works from children as well as other creative products has kicked off at Beijing's China Millennium Monument Museum. The aim of the Design Education for Children show, also part of Beijing International Design Week, is "to reduce the gap between our children and aesthetic education," said Zhang Chunyan, director of the China International Design Museum of China Academy of Art, on Monday.

The exhibition is one of the latest results of the Institute of Children's Aesthetic Education supported by the China Academy of Art, China National Children's Center, and Beijing Design Week.

"The reason why we wanted to set up such an institute specifically for children is that we found that aesthetic education is not just for cultivating people's hearts and building character, or just a parallel of moral education," Gao Mingshi, president of China Academy of Art, told the Global Times on Monday. 

"More importantly, for today's China, it is an important way to cultivate creativity from 0 to 1 and stimulate the nation's independent innovation capabilities."

Universities like Tsinghua and Tongji and art institutions like the China Academy of Art, all have good research, a big platform, and resources, but they have never been able to provide real off-campus art education for children. 

"What we do next is to implement research results into reality to truly benefit our children across the country," added Zhang. 

The works from children at the exhibition show that children "are full of free and bold imagination, and are very rich in creativity and imagination," commented Gao. 

The exhibition is set to run until October 15.