The P.E.R. project arrives in the USA in Denver: "New worlds, between natural and digital"

"Growing worlds together, crossing dialogues between digital and nature" is the title of the fourth international conference-action of the project on play and learning P.E.R. Play Explore Research launched by Fondazione Reggio Children-Loris Malaguzzi Ets Centre and The LEGO Foundation at the end of 2023, to be held on 10, 11 and 12 April in Denver, Colorado, USA.

The event, which will involve teachers, educators, university students, families, communities, girls and boys, is promoted together with partners University of Colorado Denver, School of Education & Human Development and the Boulder Journey School Colorado, both founders of Fondazione Reggio Children  and friends from the educational experience of the city of Reggio Emilia, so much to be, Denver, the first city in North America that hosted the exhibition "The Hundred Languages of Children".

"We are excited to bring to life, together with historic partners such as The LEGO Foundation, the Boulder Journey School and the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Education & Human Development, the fourth conference-international action of the project Play Explore Research "Growing worlds together, crossing dialogues between digital and nature" - says Francesco Profumo, president of Fondazione Reggio Children -. This event is much more than a simple conference: It is an extraordinary opportunity to reaffirm our shared educational vision at a global level. At a time when education must prepare children for a professional and social future yet to be imagined, we believe that play is a strategic lever of learning and the engine of educational innovation. Through the action research project Play, Explore, Research (P.E.R.) and this international collaboration, we demonstrate how, by playing and exploring, it is possible to grow worlds together with children, Worlds in which digital and nature dialogue and education is transformed to respond to the challenges of today and tomorrow".

The program was illustrated this morning in a press conference at Caffarri, research center of Fondazione Reggio Children, supported by the LEGO Foundation in the PER project and "symbol of regeneration", as said Carla Rinaldi. The educator, honorary president of Fondazione Reggio Children, professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, has worked closely with the Boulder Journey School over the years. In Denver, a speech by Carla Rinaldi entitled "Together we learn, together we grow" will launch the themes of the action conference: "We are grateful to our dear friends, partners and founders of Denver, such as The LEGO Foundation - said the honorary president -, with whom we are collaborating on the present and future of education, compared to new worlds that appear to us. Certainly we can learn from the empathy and creativity of childhood to face new questions and above all we must learn to value childhood".

"We are halfway through the PER project on play and learning, launched in Reggio Emilia in 2023 and whose final budget will be in Billund at the end of the year - explained Cristian Fabbi, General Director of Fondazione Reggio Children - We can say that we are building a series of relationships and knowledge with the most diverse educational experiences and cultures, with which Fondazione Reggio Children will continue to work. From here will be born new projects especially in the direction of the educational emergency, in the world, but also in Italy where we are already active".

"This opportunity to meet the P.E.R. project is based on the long-standing relationship between the University of Colorado in Denver and the Boulder Journey School with the Reggio Children’s Foundation. - said Sam Hall, CEO of the Boulder Journey School and Lori Ryan PhD, associate professor, coordinator of the Early Childhood Education program at the School of Education & Human Development, University of Colorado - We are honored to be the local support organizations for the P.E.R. USA conference in Denver, Colorado, from April 10-12, 2025. We anticipate that the Denver experience will encourage dialogue and action, enrich our community and inspire possibilities for the future. We are really happy to be collaborating with our colleagues in Reggio Emilia on this important project which promotes learning through play".

A project for children

The research project P.E.R. Play Explore Research of Fondazione Reggio Children and The LEGO Foundation has four areas of intervention. First, the opportunity to meet educational communities at conferences-actions, where they meet and different cultures and experiences in the world, to promote the right to quality education and foster the connection between play and learning, through exchanges and dialogues between educators, teachers, parents, institutions. Then, the publication of research, the creation of a new research centre, located at Caffarri in Reggio Emilia, and the monitoring and development of project results. A project to benefit children, especially in educational emergency contexts, to promote a culture of childhood, recognizing their rights and potential to grow as conscious and creative citizens, giving value to the ability to learn together, to use different languages, to establish an empathic relationship with all living beings.

From Reggio Emilia to Billund via Vietnam

After the start in Reggio Emilia in November 2023, with the participation for The LEGO Foundation of the patron Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and of Sidsel Kristensen, with Mitchel Resnick of the Lifelong Kindergarten of the MIT Media Lab, followed in 2024Action in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Johannesburg, South Africa. Now, in April, the project’s new appointment in Denver, USA, will be followed in June by Nairobi, Kenya, in September by Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi in Vietnam and in November in the city of Billund, Denmark, where The LEGO Foundation has its headquarters.

The P.E.R. USA partner network 

There is a rich network of local partners that promotes the P.E.R USA conference-action together with the Boulder Journey School and the University. These are companies from several American states, active in education, social and public education, with quality and research projects: The Clubhouse Network, creative and technological environments in the suburbs, Founded in 1993 with the collaboration of MIT Media Lab in Boston, the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, which offers support to native families, the Creative Communities - University of Colorado-Boulder, researchers, students, designers and educators dealing with creativity, the History Co-Lab, which combines learning, belonging and democracy, the Center for Playful Inquiry, focused on care, art and sharing between adults and children,  Education Reimagined a network of students, Teachers and researchers to advance education at national level.

Three days of dialogues and workshops

The three-day action conference in Denver will include dialogues, workshops, meetings and experiences. After a first working meeting between the partners on Thursday 10 April, Friday 11 April 2025, the opening of P.E.R. USA can be followed online (starting at 9.15 local time, at 17.15 Italian time). The day will continue with workshops: twelve different experiences to learn through play, completed by dialogues between groups and in plenary. Saturday 12 April, a day dedicated to families, children and communities experimenting different creative possibilities, free entry.

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