This exhibition was a celebration of work undertaken over many years involving Baljit Gill, early years colleagues and artists Tom Green and Pippa North. The aim- promoting and developing creativity in early years play, learning and development inspired by the early years pre-schools of Reggio Emilia Italy.

The Reggio Emilia approach to early years education was started in the city of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy after World War II. Founded by Loris Malaguzzi, a teacher, the schools have become world famous for their high quality early years care and education. The concept of teachers as participants in learning with the children, documentation of the learning process, the involvement of artists in children’s education and the beautiful environments are some aspects of the approach that have inspired visitors from all over the world.

In Reggio, a curriculum that builds upon children’s interest, their developing needs and their lives as part of a family and community is offered and can take the form of projects, co-constructed between children, their families, teachers and artists.

Documenting children’s learning is the way in which their learning is made visible in Reggio and the way in which they create and sustain a powerful culture of learning amongst both children and adults alike.

The environments described as the ‘Third Teacher’ in Reggio are beautiful. Spacious and well planned, attention is given to detail in each centre where a piazza provides a common meeting space for all children with separate spaces for the range of other activities that children engage in.

Remida the recycling centre in Reggio Emilia has also been an inspiration to the work of Baljit Gill. The recycling centre provides the schools of Reggio with a range of open-ended materials sourced from local business and industry.

Shifted Habit(at)s - A Celebration of Creativity in Play, Learning and Development. This exhibition came about as the result of ten years of developing creativity in children’s play, learning and development, the projects have been an ongoing collaborative process between early years practitioners and artists undertaken with a view to embedding creativity at the heart of our work with children and families.

Baljit Gill and Imagine… has, for many years, taken an approach that ensures the needs and interests of the individual child and family are taken seriously alongside ensuring that continuous provision for children reflects the developing needs and interests of the group. We have been involved in a range of projects long and short term working closely with artists and early years practitioners.

Inspired and encouraged by Reggio’s approach to documenting children’s learning, we continue to show how the children are learning as individuals and in groups. There are many ways in which we display children’s work including the work of children who have left and moved on to school. This is exhibited throughout the nursery.

We continue to develop exciting and inspiring multi-sensory learning spaces for children and families and exciting and stimulating events for professionals both within the nursery in the community and with partners in their schools and nurseries. Beautiful environments and spaces for both temporary use and medium to long term use can be created to suit the needs of all groups.

Our work as part of the Shifted Habit(at)s exhibition and now at Imagine… has involved using found, natural and recycled materials offering children and their families opportunities to engage in play and learning with resources other than toys. The use of open-ended materials has been key to nurturing creativity for both children and adults alike. These materials are an essential part of our ongoing work and we continue to develop this further.