Join us on Tuesday, January 23rd, for our Online Meeting Revisiting and building on the theme: Exploring Community and the Power of Materials
Renwick Gallery Sharing Honors and Burdens
When: Sunday, December 3, 2023 Where: Renwick Gallery Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW Washington, DC Time: 10:30am - 12:30pm Other: Metro accessible: Blue, Orange, Silver lines Farragut North and Red Line Farragut West
Please join DCREA for a special "field trip" to the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC to view one of the current exhibits Sharing Honors and Burdens. We will view the exhibit both independently and focus together as a group on specific artists and ideas. We hope you will join this opportunity to experience this powerful exhibit and dialogue around community and the power of materials to convey messages. It represents a continuation of our intention to use handcraft as a way to express our vision of the DCREA community.
Please use the link below to read about the exhibit and view the artist videos available on the website.
"The atelier has brought many materials and techniques, but has also illuminated a need, not only for children, but for human beings to communicate in a way that rationality and imagination travel together. We believe in a multiplicity of languages that are integrated and not separated. We believe that this makes learning and understanding more rich and more complete." Vea Vecchi, Tedx Talk, October 2011 (translated)
WELCOME TO OUR 2023-2024 SEASON
Intention Letter and Planning
We are working in difficult times. I believe that the challenge facing children today is...to think how to interconnect…a word we need to deeply understand and in all its forms. We need to do so keeping in mind that we live in a world made not of separate islands but of networks…in the metaphor is contained both the construction of children’s thoughts and our own thought constructions…which belongs to a wide archipelago where interference, interaction and interdependence are constantly present even when we don’t see them. Loris Malaguzzi, 1993
The DC Reggio Emilia Alliance (DCREA) launches its 13th year this month. Coming out of the pandemic, and after multiple years of meeting virtually and less active participation by members, we think this is our opportunity to reflect, re-imagine and rebuild DCREA. We invite you to be part of our dialogues and events this year as we revisit DCREA’s mission and goals.
How can DCREA better work to serve children, educators and parents within a wider EC community which is made up of diverse perspectives on the rights of children and parents, limited funding resources, different operating requirements and quality standards?
What actions do DCREA members want to take that connects us to other educators to advocate for quality programs for young children and teachers?
What do you need from DCREA to reconnect and be an active participant in rebuilding DCREA?
A survey has gone out to members to provide the Steering Committee with feedback on what you would like DCREA to look like moving forward. Please complete by Friday, 29 September and we will share your feedback at our kickoff meeting at Adas Israel on Wednesday, 25 October.
To start the reconnection process, the Steering Committee has planned 6 meetings, 4 in-person and 2 online, between October 2023 and April 2024. We are still confirming dates and speakers but want to share where we currently are in our planning.
Wednesday, 4 October: We hope you will be able to join us for a collaborative event with colleagues from DC Project Zero Early Childhood (DCPZEC) from 5:30 - 7:30PM in the outdoor classroom at Briya’s Fort Totten location (100 Gallatin Street NE, WDC). Weaving New Connections: Setting Collective Intentions for a New School Year We will meet with friends, old and new, to reflect on the first weeks of school, set intentions for the weeks to come, and grow our communities.
Wednesday, 25 October In Person 6:30pm DCREA’s kickoff meeting at Adas Israel Gan Hayeled Nursery (2850 Quebec St NW, WDC). Join us to begin a DCREA revisioning dialogue on building community within our schools, programs, neighborhoods and across ECE communities. This evening we will share the survey feedback and begin a dialogue as we reconstruct, through slow stitching, an abandoned quilt as a metaphor for community building. Our intention is to donate the reconstructed quilt to an organization, charity or shelter.
Sunday, 3 December: In Person Time: TBD Meet at the Renwick Gallery to tour the “Sharing Honors and Burdens'' exhibit. The exhibit focuses on works by six contemporary Native American and Alaska Native artists who express the honors and burdens that connect people to one another. To be followed by a dialogue about the exhibit and connections to our work being in dialogue in different ways with your community.
January 10, 17 or 24, 2024: Online dialogue with a guest speaker (TBD) February 7, 14 or 21, 2024: Online dialogue March 13 or 20, 2024: In person event April 10 or 24, 2024: In person meeting/event