EXHIBITIONS

The Hundred Languages of Children

The travelling exhibition The Hundred Languages of Children has been telling the story of Reggio Emilia’s experience of education to thousands of visitors around the world since 1981, through images, stories, drawings and first hand accounts.

"This exhibition is opposed to every prophetic pedagogy, which knows everything before everything happens. Which teaches children that days are the same, that there are no surprises, and adults that they must only repeat what they were not able to learn."

Loris Malaguzzi

 

"To know how to speak to everyone, of the infinite richness of children’s potentialities, their capacity for wonder and research, their capacity for co-constructing knowledge through processes that are relational, active and original: this has always been the exhibition’s primary objective."

Loris Malaguzzi

The Hundred Languages of Children exhibition is a fundamental reference point for Italian and international pedagogical culture. With five European editions and a North American edition since 1987, showings all round the world, and hundreds of thousands of visitors of every nationality, the exhibition is rooted in the experience of Reggio Emilia’s municipal educational institutions, and still today bears witness to the extraordinary and original journeys of research that take place inside them. 

The exhibition was conceived by Loris Malaguzzi and his closest collaborators, and tells the story of an educational adventure which has always been a weave of experience, thinking, discussion, theoretical research, and the ethical and social ideals of children, teachers and parents. Loris Malaguzzi called it a ‘narrative of the possible’: an unceasing collective work of action and research which at its centre places children who are ‘competent at knowing and researchers into meanings’.

During its long journey, venue after venue, The Hundred Languages of Children created important opportunities for dialogue between Reggio Emilia and several other educational realities. It was an important tool for communicating and diffusing the Reggio Emilia Approach. Since 2008, this story has been continued with another exhibition titled The Wonder of Learning. 

 

IN DEPTH ANALYSIS

From If the Eye Leaps over the Wall to The Hundred Languages of Children

 

1981 

If the Eye Leaps over the Wall. Hypotheses for visionary didactics is shown in Reggio Emilia, testifying to the work of the infant-toddler centres and preschools. It is both a declaration of project, and a communication of what research into pedagogy and expression has produced – an important tool for professional development and growth for teachers, atelieristas, and pedagogistas.

 

1981

If the Eye Leaps over the Wall goes to Stockholm. Showing at the Moderna Museet, accompanied by a Swedish television documentary and the interest of educators, journalists, and writers of Stockholm, its notoriety extends to the other side of the Atlantic. This first encounter between different experiences and cultures represents a precious opportunity for reflection, and for revisiting the exhibit in terms of content and the structure of communication.

 

1987

The exhibition is re-designed and reproduced, and given the title The Hundred Languages of Children – Narrative of the Possible. Projects by Children of the Municipal Infant-Toddler Centres and Preschools of Reggio Emilia.
Two versions are made for Europe and North America, starting out on parallel journeys around the two continents. Each new venue is accompanied by initiatives for professional development, meetings, seminars and conferences.

 

Travelling <br>exhibition

EUROPE

Croatia 
Pola

Denmark
Odense
Århus
Copenaghen
Aalborg

Finland
Valkeaakoski

France
Blois

Germany
Berlin
Brandeburg
Bremen
Burghausen
Düsseldorf
Essen/Bielefeld
Frankfurt/Main
Frankfurt/Oder

 

Hamburg
Kyritz
Stuttgart
Weingarten

Iceland
Reykjavik

Italy
Alessandria
Ascoli Piceno
Bari
Bergamo
Bologna

Fano
Napoli
Palermo
Reggio Emilia
Roma
Torino
Udine
Varese
Verona

Luxemburg

United Kingdom
Belfast
Birmingham
Bradford
Bristol
Cambridge
Cardiff
Coventry
Exeter
Glasgow
Kent

Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle upon Tyne
Swansea

Spain
Barcellona
Madrid
Palma de Mallorca

Sweden
Boras
Eskilstuna
Göteborg
Kalmar
Stockholm
Ümea

Switzerland
Cham

NORTH AMERICA

Canada
Calgary
Toronto
Vancouver

USA
Amherst, MA
Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Boulder, CO
Boston, MA

Cambridge, MA
Casper, WY
Chicago, IL
Columbus, OH
Dayton, OH
Des Moines, IA
Detroit, MI
Elyria, OH
Fort Worth, TX
Fresno, CA

 

Holyoke, MA
Lexington, KY
Memphis, TN
Miami, FL
New York, NY
Newton, MA
North Darmouth, MA
Norwich, VT
Oakland, CA
Oklahoma City, OK

Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, OR
Richmond, VA
Salt Lake City, UT
San Francisco, CA
San Rafael, CA
Santa Fe, NM
South Bend, IN
St.Louis, MO
St.Paul, MN

Syracuse, NY
Washington, D.C.
White Plains, NY
Winston Salem, NC

SOUTH AMERICA

Argentina
Buenos Aires

Brasile
San Paolo

Chile
La Serena
Santiago
Punta Arenas
Valparaiso

Mexico
Merida
Monterrey

Peru
Lima

Uruguay
Montevideo

ASIA

Korea
Seul

Japan
Fukushima
Kanazawa
Mishima
Tokyo
Hong Kong

India
Nuova Delhi

Israel
Tel Aviv

Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
Turchia
Smirne

OCEANIA

Australia
Adelaide
Alice Springs
Ballarat
Canberra
Darwin
Melbourne
Perth
Richmond
Tasmania

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