Ars Canusina inaugurates the thirteenth chapter of the ‘Dèibambini’ cycle, dedicated since 2006 to children's creativity. Curated by Massimilano Vitali and Chiara Bombardieri, the project was conceived by MUSEC and shared from the beginning by the Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale in Reggio Emilia, with the collaboration of the Diocese of Reggio Emilia and Guastalla (Diocesan Museum), and the Association ‘Ars Canusina’ in Bibbiano (Reggio Emilia) and investigates the interaction between art, craftsmanship and psycho-pedagogy through the textiles and ceramics created by the children of the Colony-School ‘A. Marro’, under the guidance of the psychiatrist Maria Bertolani Del Rio (1892-1978).

To understand the story of the ‘A. Marro’ Colony-School and the Ars Canusina art therapy experience, we must first remember that it took place almost entirely in a Europe intimidated by the irrational policies of totalitarian regimes and the brutal attempt to ‘improve the race starting with maternity and childhood’. In a context characterised by psychotherapeutic concepts that were still purely positivist, thanks to the innovative, courageous and diligent work of Maria Bertolani del Rio (1892-1978), hundreds of children with psychiatric or behavioural problems were able to significantly improve their condition and in many cases be reintegrated into society. An important part of the therapy followed in the School-Colony was the artisanal and artistic application of a real ‘alphabet of ornamentation’ based on the motifs of Romanesque sculpture from Reggio: signs commonly found in the imagination of children and young people who found a way to express through creativity an innate need for harmony and ‘regularity’, gradually acquiring a calmer, more stable and orderly sense of their sensory and human experience.