MUNICH.- "For Children. Art Stories Since 1968" comes to a close at Haus der Kunst on 31 May 2026, the eve of International Children's Day, a fitting moment that reaffirms the exhibition's core commitment: taking children seriously as audience, as co-creators, and as social actors. What opened in July 2025 as the result of several years of research has, over the course of ten months, grown into one of the most-visited presentations in Haus der Kunst’s recent history. More than 131,000 visitors, a strikingly intergenerational public that included numerous school classes, as well as group and family visits, a four-month extension, and a nomination for the ART Curators’ Award for the best exhibition of 2025 mark the Munich chapter of the exhibition. In addition, international cultural practitioners and institutions have expressed strong interest in the exhibition's participatory approach, seeking exchange with Haus der Kunst. Conceived and developed at Haus der Kunst, "For Children" now travels onward to the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (30 May – 18 October 2026). Its resonance also extends into the digital realm: on 20 May 2026, Haus der Kunst launches HausCode, a new annual initiative for creative research and development, beginning with a first cycle dedicated to "For Children" and presenting three commissioned works.
The exhibition brings together works by over twenty international artists that have been created specifically for a young audience since the late 1960s. In the Archiv Galerie, the happening-like actions of the Munich-based KEKS group mark the historical starting point, from which "For Children" unfolds across the Foyer, Ostgalerie, Mittelhalle, Terrassensaal and Atelier, extending all the way to the terrace facing the Eisbach. Childhood is approached as a state of being, one in which questions of learning, participation and institutional practice are raised anew. Building on this approach, the symposium "For Children. Study Days" on 20 and 21 March 2026 explored the exhibition's central questions through lectures, panel discussions, performances and workshops, bringing together international artists, scholars and practitioners to discuss artistic and institutional practices involving children and young people.
During the final ten day of the exhibition, "For Children" remains an active space of experience, inviting visitors to take part, to explore, and to linger. Visitors are invited to skate on KOO JEONG A’s sculpture HAUS DER MAGNET, to contribute to Ei Arakawa-Nash's work Mega Please Draw Freely by drawing on the floor of the Mittelhalle, and to make use of the extensive programme of guided tours and workshops. Among these is a tour with Andrea Lissoni, artistic director of Haus der Kunst, who will offer deeper insights into the conception of the exhibition and his collaboration with the artists. On 29 May, Open Haus offers one final chance to visit the exhibition for free, before the finissage on 31 May marks its farewell to Munich.
Early on, the international press recognised the exhibition as a reference point for other institutions engaging with the art histories of underrepresented groups, describing it among other things as a "celebration of curiosity" that filled the entire building and spilled into the surrounding garden. Such responses point to what "For Children" has set in motion beyond the show itself: a view of the museum as a place where participatory practice and curatorial research come together.
With “For Children”, Haus der Kunst continues to pursue its path towards becoming an open, participatory institution. Learning and engagement are viewed as an integral part of curatorial work, not an additional programme.
HausCode: first cycle in the spirit of "For Children"
What took shape over ten months as an exhibition within the rooms of Haus der Kunst finds a form of its own in the digital realm. With HausCode, a new initiative for creative research and development launched this year, the museum takes its next step. Set to recur annually, the initiative dedicates its first cycle to "For Children. Art Stories since 1968."
Digital practitioners and interdisciplinary creatives worldwide are invited to embody, extend and reinterpret the museum's artistic programme. The contributors act as independent voices that decode, question or reimagine the institution's logics and narratives from within. Their contributions function as a conceptual avatar of Haus der Kunst – a generative identity that expands with each cycle. From a large number of international applications, a committee made up of the directorate, the curatorial department and digital communications of Haus der Kunst, together with external experts from digital advisory, visual identity and design, selected three works. They engage with systems of learning, play and care, through interactive sound and through text- and gaming-based environments. At the heart of the first cycle are sharing and connection.
From 20 May 2026, the three contributions can be experienced on the website of Haus der Kunst. All three invite visitors to take part: Adaeze Okaro's Instructions We Follow Without Being Asked, an online questionnaire gathers personal memories of childhood rules of behaviour, which feed into the AI-supported research project. Fá Maria's Lullabies for Machines invites visitors to hum or sing into an AI model trained on lullabies from different languages and generations. The result is a hybrid vocal encounter, in which one's own voice is woven together with voices from around the world into a collective lullaby. In Mining Raw Letters' School Pixel, visitors explore a pixel world based on a typeface developed by children, collect letters and design their own worlds for others to play online.
HausCode is conceived by Haus der Kunst as part of its future-oriented development strand, managed and overseen by Margarita Shabaeva, and advised by Chris Michaels.
