The Bermuda National Gallery is looking for artists between the ages of 5 and 17 for the 2024 Junior Biennial.

It is a new display for the Hamilton gallery, an offshoot of the “flagship exhibit” it started more than 30 years ago, the Bermuda Biennial.

Students have until September 29 to submit work that showcases their “originality, unique imagination and technical skill”.

There is no theme or size limit; submissions can be in any medium.

Molly Bretton, head of learning at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England, will serve as juror.

Six years ago she launched the Young Artists’ Summer Show, an annual exhibit at the Royal Academy open to students in the United Kingdom between the ages of 4 and 19. Just over 20,000 students applied this year – 300 had their work displayed in the gallery; 500 pieces were exhibited online.

Eve Godet Thomas, the director of exhibitions at BNG, saw the show a couple years ago and thought doing something similar might benefit the art of students here, and deepen their engagement with the Bermuda gallery.

“They got in contact with me and initially just wanted to ask a few questions about how I'd set up the Young Artists’ Summer Show and how we were running it, and any kind of pitfalls that I could flag their way, just so they could feel confident in what they were setting up as a team for the Junior Biennial,” Ms Bretton said.

She was thrilled when asked to be the inaugural juror.

“It's a very small world of people that are working in this way with children's art. There are only two other museums that I know about that consistently collect and showcase children's art – one in Oslo, one in New York,” she added.

“Although there are quite a few children's art prizes and initiatives, they're often very specifically funded; they're often very focused on a particular medium or they're very themed and they kind of pop up and disappear. The Young Artists’ Summer Show is relatively unique and so the idea that this kind of model is now spreading beyond us and will exist in Bermuda, is so exciting.”

Ms Bretton has enjoyed the insight the programme gives about young people and their interests.

“To see what young people are thinking about, what they're concerned about, what they're passionate about and interested in; how they're making, what they're making with, who they're making with, is just the most valuable insight into child culture and the next generation of creators. The idea that I now have the privilege of looking at and experiencing young artists’ works from Bermuda is incredible.”

Why it’s not done more often is a question that Ms Bretton says is a “hard one to answer” but she thinks it is possible that people are just simply “more comfortable” evaluating contributions from adults who have had formal training in art.

“The canon of art is far too restrictive and the histories of art that we’ve been taught over the years, they've edited out lots of people. They are not a full reflection of the creatives who have existed and been making,” she said. “There have been some very particular reasons why we haven't seen enough African and African diasporic artists over the years, or female artists, or self-taught or outsider artists. I feel that there's a wider appraisal happening recently about why it is we haven't heard those stories and seen those artists as much, and I do think it's about time that we have a similar conversation about children's art.”

She thinks it is partly tied to the wrongful assumption that childhood is only a step on the way to adulthood rather than a culture in and of itself.

“There's a long history of artists looking to children's artwork for inspiration – from John Ruskin in the 18th century through into the 20th century with people like Picasso and Gauguin, Miro and John Dubuffet, Matisse…..Artists have known for some time that there's a very unique well of creativity in young people and their intuitive way of making is something that is often envied by adult artists,” she said.

“I think if we respect that children have a culture of their own, then the creative ideas and objects that they create have value in us understanding and appreciating that. It's not this idea that they're in training for adulthood and only at that point do we appreciate the words they say, the ideas that they have, the critical opinions that they own, and the objects that they make.”

Works are to be submitted digitally. Ms Bretton will judge them remotely but will travel to the island in November to open the show.

Her selection will consider three factors: originality, creativity and skill.

“So no copies, unique imagination – something that's truly from your own perspective, your own world of creativity – and technical skill,” she said. “Artworks don't need all three but those are the three categories that I'll be thinking of when I'm appraising them. I’ll also want to, obviously, reflect the range of ages, given that the submission is 5 to 17 year olds, and the range of different mediums as well,” she said.

Her idea is to celebrate young artists and provide a showcase of their work for their peers to see as students most often only see the work of their classmates.

“To have different materials that may not be explored yet, different scales, different approaches to art-making feels really important. This is a unique opportunity to get a much bigger sense of what other young people are out there thinking about,” she said.

• The 2024 Junior Bermuda Biennial is open to children between the ages of 5 and 17. There is no charge to apply. Children must apply online by September 29, at www.bng.bm/2024-junior-bermuda-biennial/apply, and may submit up to three pieces of art. The exhibit will be run at the Bermuda National Gallery from November 30 until April. See the Royal Academy of Arts’ Young Artists’ Summer Show at youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/