In Ligonchio from 20 foreign countries for Reggio Children study group, between education and environment

The heart of Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park becomes for one week the center of the international world of education

From Saudi Arabia to Ligonchio, from Australia to Ligonchio, from Japan to Ligonchio. To create a dialog between the culture of the Atelier and the natural environment. For the first time, a group of one hundred people formed by teachers, workshop artists, didactic directors, and educators coming from 20 different countries will spend one week - from 2nd to 9th July - in Ligonchio, a Municipality of Appennino Reggiano, to take part in an international study group of Reggio Children.

Ligonchio is the highest Municipality of Appennino Reggiano: the whole land area - 60 square km - of intact nature and isolated beauty is populated by almost 1,000 residents. In its historical Enel Hydroelectric Power Station, in 2009 Appennino Tosco Emiliano National Park opened the Atelier of Water and Energy "Di Onda in Onda", in collaboration with the Municipality of Ligonchio, Enel, and with the planning and advice of Reggio Children.

This place, where energy is not only an object of knowledge, but also a metaphor of new forms of dialog and exchange with the local natural, cultural, and social environment, becomes a trait d'union between the Apennines and the Reggio Approach. And focusing on educational issues in this place at 1,000m of altitude, also means focusing on environmental education.

The idea of the first study group "Ligonchio - Reggio Emlia" is to pay attention to the places where you live in order to live them with quality: this is true for places that are part of a town, a forest, a school, and for interior or exterior places. The proposal is to create ateliers, places of knowledge, with different focuses. And then Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park becomes a widespread atelier, a unique big research territory; dancing becomes relationship between the body and the environment; the vegetable world becomes essential issue between nature and cooking. And the live concerts of the choruses in the most isolated country hamlets, as well as classical music in the town squares, become some of those "one hundred languages" used in the natural environment of the Apennines. Workshops, conferences, and group works are held in unusual places: like Casalino, a country hamlet of 47 inhabitants, like Sologno, beloved place of Loris Malaguzzi, like Pradarena Pass, separating Emilia from Tuscany.

From Brazil, from South Korea, from Thailand to do, create, meet, reflect. Each place has a soul, an identity: trying to discover it and interact with it means learning to recognize also your own soul.

At 3.00 p.m. on Sunday 3^rd July, at the Elementary School of Ligonchio, the official presentation of the first "Summer school Ligonchio-Reggio Emilia", with the President of Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d'Infanzia of the Municipality of Reggio, Claudia Giudici, the President of Reggio Children, Carla Rinaldi, the Mayor of Ligonchio, Giorgio Pregheffi, the President of Appennino Tosco Emiliano National Park, Fausto Giovanelli, the School Councilor of the Municipality of Reggio Luna Sassi, the coordinators of the ateliers.

International Center Loris Malaguzzi, Reggio Children, with Istituzione Comunale Scuole e Nidi d'Infanzia and Amici di Reggio Children in collaboration with the Municipality of Ligonchio, Appennino Tosco Emiliano National Park, Enel, and Association Amici dell'Atelier delle Acque e delle Energie Di Onda in Onda.