via Bligny, 1
Reggio Emilia
Italy

 
  contacts and information:
Reggio Children
 
 
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International Center Loris Malaguzzi

An international place open to the future, to different cultures, to ideas, hopes and imagination. A place of the possible, a place which is useful an needed by the city and the Centre’s changing neighbourhood.
A place not born today; the first suggestions came with Loris Malaguzzi, “We are working in difficult times, so changeable, so fluctuating …beyond any ability for prediction, for the future is difficult to govern…”
In 1998 the Reggio Comune (Municipality) acquired the ex-Locatelli premises as a catalyst, a symbol of transformation in the northern area of the city. A place where children and their potentials are at the centre, it wishes to offer opportunities for creativity to children, young people, families, and new possibilities to the international educational community and all those who hold dear the themes of education and innovation.
 
 
One City, Many Children
Memories of a present history dedicated to the many people who have made it possible.
A long and adventurous journey connects childhood and the city of Reggio Emilia, a journey in which thousands have participated. An extraordinary adventure of men and women, above all women, who day after day, with intelligence and passion have made the story possible.
An experience which has renewed itself over time and which continues to do so today – not without difficulties and future aspirations – to produce an uninterrupted dialogue between children and the city. A history of hard work and joy, conflict and sharing because as Howard Gardner says, “there cannot be
an absence of conflict in a changing reality”.
Using different levels of reading the exhibition seeks to narrate the history of municipal infant-toddler centres and preschools, started up and developed in Reggio Emilia in 1963 but rooted in previous experiences described in the exhibition using contemporary material.
 
 
Dialogue with Places
The suggestion for this project came from another project in the city entitled “An Invitation to…” in which five important artists created contemporary works of art in five different places around the city. Children and teachers in Reggio infant-toddler centres and preschools explored the International Centre while work was still partially underway choosing areas of the Centre interesting to them and designing a work/a gift conceived in empathy and dialogue with the chosen places. They respected the place’s identity while intervening on it and causing it to modify.
The children’s journey sets in motion many processes; creative, sympathetic, cognitive
and draws these into a design/project
approach which tends to oppose widespread attitudes of dis-engagement and indifference in the same way that it tends to refuse passive and uncritical acceptance of poor quality environments. It is our hope that an approach which is sensitive to surroundings can be a positive element for participation, for solidarity and awareness towards others and the
environment.


 
 
Ray of Light Atelier
(italian version only)
The Ray of Light atelier was presented at The Genoa Science Festival in November 2005. It is an environment offering children, young people and teachers the opportunity to experience some of the qualities of light and become familiar with the “grammar” of these through individual and group interaction. The idea was born from the encounter between work on the identity of the Malaguzzi Centre and the desire
to make the atelier an innovative area for research on the hundred languages of children. The Ray of Light Atelier proposes an inter-disciplinary approach to the subject without a single progression leading to one solution. Rather, it encourages the elaboration of theory and knowledge on light in both individuals and groups. Conception and realisation of the atelier came about with contributions from a working group made up of people with diverse competencies; atelieristi (educational artists),
pedagogisti (educational co-ordinators), a physicist, an architect and a group of volunteers made up of many enthusiastic parents. Successive phases of research and development are planned for the exhibition and will be put together over a period of two years.

www.raggiodiluce.eu
new web site on line (italian version only)
Atelier Raggio di Luce
 
 
Play+ Soft
The exhibition recounts the results of a research project and laboratory work involving designers, teachers, pedagogiste (educational co-ordinators) and preschools in Reggio Emilia
working together for over two years.
Play+Soft is a range of furnishings introducing new sensory qualities into environments and landscapes for childhood. It is a contribution towards making the environments inhabited
by children experiencing the adventure of growing more complex and stimulating, a tool for investigating new ways of inhabiting spaces for children and adults. The exhibition of this new range of soft furnishings for childhood was created with pedagogical consulting from Reggio Children and developed by 28 international designers. Art direction is by Michele Zini and realisation by the innovative business entrepreneur Maurizio Fontanili.
 
 
  The Catalogue is distributed by Reggio Children offices.
 
 
 
     
     
 
international
association
friends of
reggio children
municipality of
reggio emilia
infant-toddler
centers
and preschools