Explo Labo

Emotion is central to the lives of the very young. And artistic and creative activities contribute to their emotional development, both at home and in care. Care initiatives thus stimulate the talents of babies and toddlers, as well as those of the carers and other professionals who look after them.

Explo Labo therefore focussed on childcare. Within the project, Lasso supported innovative initiatives around art and culture. To this end we created small local networks, consisting of professionals and volunteers from day-care centres, artists, public workers from art houses, community centres, etc. In each of these networks, Lasso supervised trial projects tailored to the operation and the children involved. In the process, attention was also paid to the participating adults: to strengthening the cultural and/or pedagogical competences of the child carers, pre-school supervisors and artistic or cultural workers involved.

The applied methodologies were mapped and the results shared with practitioners from Brussels and Flanders. In this way, we ensured that innovative initiatives found their way into the field. Lasso was assisted in this by the Erasmushogeschool - Department of Early Childhood Pedagogy. The project ran for three years (2022-2025) and was made possible through funding from the Flemish Government.