Introduction

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides a vista on the territories of inquiry explored in subsequent chapters, through narratives of lived experience of being, and being with, young children as they engage in art, play, and aesthetic experimentations in the contemporary world. Through their ongoing and multivocal dialogues, this gathering of scholars situate themselves in relation to conventional wisdom and traditions of practice in early childhood art education, and map emergent perspectives that recognize young children as capable social beings whose forays into the worlds of art practice are unpredictable, rich and revelatory, reflecting the unheralded intelligence and engagement of the very young, working in dialogue with those adults who honor their playful immersion in art making in all its forms.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,

“To talk of many things:

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--

Of cabbages--and kings--

And why the sea is boiling hot--

And whether pigs have wings.”

–Lewis Carroll, The Walrus & the Carpenter,

Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, 1871