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CRE8 Foundation. Let's create. Together.

Let's create.

A bright room with children drawing at low white tables and alien drawings covering the back wall.
The Most Realistic Alien
A child holding up a drawing of a green alien at a table.
The Most Realistic Alien

Together

A white gallery wall hung with hundreds of alien drawings in a tight grid.
The Most Realistic Alien, installation view

Creativity and collaboration are our species' superpowers. Sometimes we forget. Children remind us

Since 2008, children around the world have made artworks with us. Each drawing is one answer. Together they become one work.

Our aim: a generation that never loses its spark.

Our storyOle Ukena, founder

Shown at

A white gallery room: a wall hung with rows of photographs on the left and, beyond a free-standing white wall, a wall of children's drawings in rows.

Exhibition at Thaillywood

Shown at Thaillywood Contemporary Artist Residency, Thailand · 2012

CRE8's first exhibition in Thailand combined individual works from different countries into collective pieces.

Two long walls of children's drawings hung in rows in the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, with one visitor kneeling in front of them.

Connected Creativity

Shown at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre · 2013

An exhibition of collaborative work made with children in Chonburi province, Thailand, in art workshops at the local school, part of a collaboration with the artist residency Thaillywood that began in early 2012.

Bangkok Art and Culture Centre · Spielraum Gallery, Berlin · AIR Open Artist Residency, Ubud · Thaillywood Contemporary Artist Residency, Thailand · Barcelona · Rishikesh

ExhibitionsArt world

The flagship

Draw an alien.Make it realistic.

The Most Realistic Alien

Nobody tells the children what realistic means. Many start with the alien from the films. Some notice, and draw another. At the wall they find out the rest.

The book, closed: bright white cloth, the title in black, a green furry alien by Kodai N., 11, Tokyo, saffron edges and a saffron ribbon.
One book a year, for 100 years: how Earth imagines aliens.The book in the making
  • A tall green alien drawn in dense crayon strokes, with one small eye and short arms.
  • An orange flame-shaped alien with one eye and a smile, surrounded by red marks.
  • A tall pink alien with a flower crown and one eye, standing on green ground among pink flowers and orange stars.
  • An alien with snake-like hair and a striped body covered in eyes, standing beside a tree.
  • A yellow alien with many eyes and red spots, next to a pink rocket.
  • A round alien split into a dark half and a yellow half, with horns, wings and a red leaf below it.
  • A black and white alien head with long antennae, beside the handwritten German words Wir kommen in Frieden.
  • A green segmented alien with large green eyes and a wide red smile.
  • A black keyhole-shaped figure with purple eyes, outlined in yellow.
  • A purple mushroom-shaped alien with red eyes, dangling yellow tentacles and a lightning bolt.
  • A tall yellow alien with one large blue eye and long arms, among small coloured dots.
  • A pen drawing of a pale alien head with large dark eyes and a small mouth, with the handwritten words The truth is out there at the bottom.

See every alienAnother alien

How the works work

  1. The instruction

    “Draw an alien. Make it realistic.” Everyone starts in the same place.

  2. Many answers

    Everyone answers in their own way. No two alike.

  3. Made together

    Grown-ups draw too. Drawings are passed on and added to.

  4. Shown as art

    Every work on the wall, whole, with the same space.

  5. One work

    All the answers side by side. That is the artwork.

How the works work

Every alien has its author

  • Two girls hold up their alien drawings against a blue wooden wall. Barú, Colombia, 2011.
    Barú, Colombia
  • Five children with arms linked hold up various alien drawings, standing together in a school art room. Germany, 2011.
    Germany
  • A girl holds up her pencil drawing of a round alien against a stone wall. Mexico, 2011.
    Mexico
  • A girl in a yellow dress holds up a painted round alien. Indonesia, 2011.
    Indonesia

The Most Realistic Alien

CRE8 happens in real places, with real children, around the world.

  • Two girls bent close over one sheet, drawing with pencils. Bogotá, Colombia, 2011.
    Bogotá, Colombia
  • A crowd of children waves from the stone base of a huge tree. Barú, Colombia, 2011.
    Barú, Colombia
  • Drawings pegged on green lines across a garden, lit by low sun. Rishikesh, India, 2012.
    Rishikesh, India
  • A white wall hung with rows of small children's drawings on wooden pegs. Barcelona, Spain, 2010.
    Barcelona, Spain
  • A girl in a blue hoodie adds to a large chalk drawing on a blackboard. Brandenburg, Germany, 2010.
    Brandenburg, Germany
  • Girls sitting on a tiled floor, drawing on sheets spread around them. Indonesia, 2011.
    Indonesia
  • Children drawing at wooden tables in a room with stone walls and a blackboard. Mexico, 2011.
    Mexico
  • Drawings pegged on a line on the terrace, a boy standing behind them. Brazil, 2012.
    Brazil
  • A student pins drawings of faces to a green board. Thailand, 2011.
    Thailand

Photo archive

The Most Realistic Alien, new cut · 0:57 · Work in progress: the music is still to come.

Films

Collaborative art projects

  1. Children drawing together on a chalkboard headed Ping Pong Drawing.
    Ping Pong PaintingOne person draws a line. The next person adds another.A drawing made by taking turns.
  2. Children's faces with coloured drawn lines projected across them.
    D.A.S. ProjectDrawing. Animation. Sound.A project in three parts, made in different places.
  3. An exhibition wall of photographs in rows under printed task headings.
    Photo RallyThe same prompt. A different way of seeing.Children respond to a series of invitations with photographs.
  4. Children and adults drawing on large boulders in bright sun, one of them on a ladder.
    The Ideal PlaceImagine the place you would like to live. Draw it together.A shared mural of a possible city, shaped by children and their ideas about the natural world.

Ole Ukena began running art workshops with children in 2008.

  • Ole Ukena in a hat and glasses, turning from a chalkboard with a line drawing of a figure.
    Loop workshop, Brandenburg, Germany, June 2010
  • Ole Ukena and a girl sitting on two chairs, fists touching, under two pink embroidered panels.
    Embroidery with Rahma in Ole's studio, Bali, November 2019

Our story

  • A tall yellow alien with one large blue eye and long arms, among small coloured dots.
  • An alien with three green heads and spiky hair, an orange shirt and green trousers, holding a phone.
  • A pale green alien with one eye, red-tipped antennae and a fringed skirt.

  • Host a workshop

    Schools, libraries, galleries, museums, festivals and families: a CRE8 workshop can happen in your space, and the work can be shown on your walls. You don't need to be an artist. We start with The Most Realistic Alien; the other projects are open too.

    Write to host a workshop

  • Run it yourself

    Every workshop is written down so anyone can run it. Each kit has the instructions, what you need and how it goes.

    Open the kit

  • Try it now

    Two people. One sheet of paper. Take turns adding one line.

    Your turn

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