A section of the exhibit at Central Library will include spaces like this one, where young visitors can play with light and shadows.
If you’ve never heard of it, Reggio Emilia might sound like a brand of Italian wine. And as you might suspect, it does refer to a place in Italy. But it also refers to a philosophy of working with young children that was developed after World War II in the villages around Reggio Emilia, Italy. One of its foundational concepts is “the hundred languages of children,” meaning that children explore and express themselves in many different ways: through words, movement, art, music and play.
These principles are the inspiration for The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children, a traveling multimedia exhibit that highlights the innovative ideas of the Reggio Emilia approach.
The Wonder of Learning, which will be on display at the Central Library and Overture Center starting on Jan. 25, uses visual displays, interactive multimedia and handmade artifacts to show how teachers and young students work together in the classroom. The exhibit’s intent is to be transformational, sending visitors home with new approaches to teaching and learning that can be immediately implemented in their interactions with young children.
A coalition of organizations from across the state — including Preschool of the Arts, UW-Madison, Madison College, Reach Dane Head Start and the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association — is bringing the exhibit to Madison.
Ann Gadzikowski, executive director of Preschool of the Arts and chair of the exhibit’s steering committee, has worked for four years to bring The Wonder of Learning to Madison. “It’s a great opportunity to shine the light on how important children are as citizens of the state of Wisconsin,” she says. “Madison is the perfect venue for this exhibit because, like Reggio Emilia, this is a city of children.”
The Wonder of Learning, which has already toured 31 countries and 41 U.S. cities, will be on display through May in two downtown Madison locations: the Youth Services room on the lower level of Madison Central Library and in the Playhouse Gallery of Overture Center. Both locations will be free and open to the public during regular hours of operation.
The library will host the largest portion of the exhibit, and it’s recommended to visit that location first. Here, visitors will encounter an introduction to Reggio Emilia and get to experience some of the projects and explorations of the children of the Reggio Emilia schools.
While the exhibit is intended to reach adult audiences (though children are welcome at both locations), the library portion will include some spaces especially intended for young visitors, including what Reggio Emilia practitioners call an atelier, or workshop, where children can experience and play with light and shadows.
Overture’s Playhouse Gallery will host a portion of the exhibit titled “Dialogues with Places.” A photo series follows the children in a Reggio Emilia program as they were brought into an empty industrial space that was to become their new classroom. The children were encouraged to explore and offer their advice for how the raw space should be used.
Many leaders of early childhood education organizations have been eagerly awaiting this exhibit, Gadzikowski says, because it promises to be both an educational experience as well as an “opportunity to advocate for access to quality care and education for all young children.”
A host of professional development workshops, conferences and events will take place in Madison while the exhibit is in town, including the Wisconsin Child Care Administrators Association Conference and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Preserving Early Childhood Conference. During “The Week of the Young Child,” April 8-12, early childhood organizations will host special events at and near the exhibit venues. Early childhood professionals in Wisconsin can also earn professional development credit for visiting the exhibit.
Even if you don’t have children or work with children, The Wonder of Learning is definitely still worth checking out. “You will still enjoy the beauty of the exhibit,” Gadzikowski says. “The photographs and images of the children’s artwork are beautiful.”
Learning can and should be a joyful and creative experience, says Gadzikowski, adding that the exhibit will give viewers a chance to “reconnect with the original excitement that we had as children when we notice something for the first time, that sense of discovery and excitement.”
