At the end of the 1960s, coherent with the politics of promoting a new culture of childhood and a new idea of school, Loris Malaguzzi decided to introduce into each of Reggio Emilia’s municipal preschools an atelier organised and looked after by a person with an education in the arts. This decision was and is more revolutionary than it might appear, and testifies to how the genesis of the ateliers occurs simultaneously with the genesis of the educational project of these schools and is part of their overall design. It was a courageous choice that wanted to strongly state the importance being given to imagination and creativity in educational processes and in knowledge.

Click here to read the article written by Filippo Chieli, Atelierista of Preschools and Infant-toddler Centres – Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia (until June 2018), collaborator of Reggio Children. This article was published in the Challenge – April 2020.