Art and aesthetic education in the Reggio Emilia Approach

in the educational experience of Reggio Emilia, art education is held to be a central element in children’s knowledge building processes and the aesthetic experience is considered an activator of learning process. In the Reggio educational philosophy, the space dedicated to aesthetic education and the exploration of artistic languages and techniques is called the “Atelier”. The Atelier is a place closely connected to the other school environments, aimed at fostering children’s agency by allowing them to explore visual and expressive languages in close synergy with verbal, body and logical ones. This paper addresses the main characteristics and values of the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy that contribute to fostering children’s agency, by focusing on the aspects that are most connected to the aesthetic experience. From such a perspective, the visual and artistic languages are considered to be a means of inquiry regarding the world and as media that support children in building bridges and relationships between cognitive and expressive processes . Finally, the paper problematises such characteristics by drawing on recent developments and interpretations of Malafouris’ material engagement theory Montani, P. 2020. “The Imagination and Its Technological Destiny.” Open Philosophy 3 (1): 187– 201.).