The cultural awakening of our youngest children is at the heart of Arts & Early Childhood, Starcatchers’ international project, funded by Erasmus+ and in partnership with a European network of early years arts and creative organisations from France, Catalonia and the Netherlands. Arts & Early Childhood was a transnational collaborative effort to explore and share best practice in early years arts and creativity across local European communities.
For Scottish early years professionals, artists and policy makers, Creative Europe offered the opportunity to work together with practitioners from each of the partner countries and participate in two 4-day international events hosted by each of the organisations.
Arts & Early Childhood engaged with local communities across the four partner countries to see arts and creativity for the very young in action. With visits in each country spanning a varied curriculum of immersive activity, including performance, childcare settings and creative play experiences, participants explored best practice at a local level on a European scale.
With an enriched sense of the early arts experience from across the European network, participants worked together to realise a blended approach to embedding arts and creativity into the early years’ experience and channel this learning locally, nationally and internationally.
Through impactful local work and knowledge-sharing across the project, Arts & Early Childhood empowered families to connect the creativity in their little one’s learning environment to their daily home lives.
Project Partners
ACTA in Villiers-le-Bel (France)
LaSala in Sabadell (Catalonia)
Stichting 2+ in Almere (Netherlands)