Objectifs Junior Festival returns on 14 November with two weekends of photography and animation workshops for children aged six to 14, most of them priced at S$20 a session. This year’s edition, If You Find… An Adventure!, runs on 14 and 15 November and from 20 to 22 November at Objectifs, 155 Middle Road, from 10.30am to 5pm daily.
The first weekend lands on the last weekend of the school term, which ends on 20 November; the second weekend and the multi-session courses that follow fall inside the school holidays, which start on 21 November. Alongside the ticketed classes there are free drop-in activities, short film screenings and a Children’s Market run by young sellers. The festival mascot, Lumie, is back too.
Short workshops and what they cost
The short workshops are open to children of all abilities and need advance registration. Each costs S$20, or S$30 for two tickets under the friend discount. A Festival Day Pass covers three workshops on the same day for S$50 per child or S$75 for two children.
- Build your Camera Obscura, 14 and 15 November, 10.30am to 12pm. Children build a single-focus camera obscura from cardboard boxes and a lens with artist-educator Isabelle Desjeux. The 14 November session is full.
- Cyanotype Adventure Bag, 14 and 15 November, 12.30pm to 1.30pm. Children use sunlight, leaves and photo negatives to print blue-and-white designs on a bag they take home. The 20 November session is full.
- Walkadoodle Animation Wheel, 15 and 20 November. A four-frame walk cycle drawn and assembled into a spinning wheel.
- Drawn to Move, 20 November. Paper-cutout characters animated with stop-motion.
- Curious Collage Creatures, 14 November. Photographs mixed and matched into invented creatures.
- Light Painters Christmas Card, 21 and 22 November, 3.30pm to 5pm. Long-exposure photographs drawn with coloured lights, for ages six to 12.
Longer holiday courses
Four multi-session courses run on and after the festival weekends for children aged six to 14, though two of them are pitched at ages six to 12.
- Minecraft Stop-Motion Animation, 21 and 22 November, 10.30am to 1.30pm each day, S$200. Children design Minecraft-style paper puppets and animate them on iPads, which are provided.
- Young YouTubers Video Challenge, three sessions of two and a half hours, from 23 to 25 November or from 2 to 4 December, S$220.
- Lego Stop-Motion Animation, 26 and 27 November.
- I Love Singapore Photography, 25 to 27 November.
What is free
The free drop-ins run at the Objectifs Annexe from 10.30am to 5pm on all five festival days. Children can play Photo Bingo with a camera, make Colour Catching Cards from feathers and cellophane, and build a creature for Lumie’s New Friend out of pipe cleaners and toilet rolls. A darkened Camera Obscura room, designed by Desjeux, projects the view outside upside down.
A short film screening runs daily from 2pm to 2.45pm with two local animations, Princess by Andre Quek and A Fish for a Friend by Javon Chan.
The Children’s Market
Children run the stalls at the Children’s Market, held in the sheltered outdoor space at the Annexe on 14, 15, 21 and 22 November from 12pm to 5pm. Entry is free. The young vendors sell crochet plushies, keychains, 3D-printed pieces and pre-loved books, a mix of handmade and second-hand finds.
