Ateliers are environments promoting knowledge and creativity, suggesting questions and generating evocations; they are beauty that produces knowledge and vice-versa, the places where “the hundred languages” are enacted. From the municipal infant-toddler centres and preschools of Reggio Emilia where they were born and continue to be an integral part of the overall educational project, Ateliers have expanded out to also include the age of adults.
"The irruption of the atelier and the atelierista intentionally disturbed the old model of schools for young children, which had already been distanced by the simultaneous presence of two teachers in each class, the collegial nature of the work and family participation through social management. Hence the genesis of the atelier was coincidental with the genesis of a new educational project - systemic, secular, modern."
Loris Malaguzzi
An atelier and atelierista have been present in each municipal preschool since the end of the 1970s; they are an integral part of the Reggio Emilia Approach, in continuous dialogue with the other spaces and professional profiles in the schools.
The culture of the atelier gives identity and shape to the educational project of Reggio Emilia, and to the philosophy of the 100 languages.
The Loris Malaguzzi International Centre offers them in the form of City Ateliers, open to schools, families, children and adults, and they travel Italy and the world in the form of “Travelling Ateliers”, paired with their exhibitions, and conveying the philosophy of the 100 languages to the world.
The Centre is open to all, as a place of meeting and discussion for people who wish to innovate education and culture, in Reggio Emilia, Italy and the world. It is a genuine manifesto of the Reggio Emilia Approach® with events, exhibitions on educational projects, ateliers, a bookshop and a centre for educational documentation and research.
