A major international exhibition of nursery children’s paintings, collages and sculptures will be launched in Newcastle and London this summer.
The Hundred Languages of Children exhibition, which is based on an innovative approach to the education of the under-sixes in Reggio Emilia, Italy, is being brought to England for the first time by the British Association for Early Childhood Education.
BAECE has secured a Pounds 10,000 grant from the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust to help fund the exhibition and hold a conference for 200 delegates. A further Pounds 10,000 has been raised from various sources by Robin Duckett, a consultant supported by Newcastle University.
The association said: “Reggio Emilia is internationally celebrated for the excellence of its public provision for the education of babies to six-year-olds. Over the past 30 years, educators there have evolved a distinctive, innovative approach that fosters children’s intellectual development through a systematic focus on symbolic representation.
“Young children are encouraged to explore their environment and express themselves through many ‘languages’ or modes of expression, including words, movement, drawing, painting, sculpture, shadow play, collage and music. ”
The exhibition will be at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum in June and at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood in London in July.
