This paper describes an interdisciplinary project involving lecturers and undergraduate students from early childhood education and communication information and new media, staff and children in three Adelaide childcare centres, three artists (musician, dancer, visual artist) in residence in childcare centres, Windmill Performing Arts, Department of Education, and early childhood final year undergraduate students. The project provided a unique opportunity for the undergraduate students from the de Lissa Institute of Early Childhood and Family Studies, and the School of Communication, Information and New Media to work with professional artists in settings for the under-fives and to learn how arts curriculum can be constructed with visiting professional artists. de Lissa students assumed a leadership role in the project as teacher/facilitators of arts learning experiences with the children in each centre. Students enrolled in Internet Broadcasting, an undergraduate course offered within the School of Communication, Information and New Media’s Arts program, filmed these interactions, capturing these unique opportunities in a ‘real’ classroom situation. The video material was subsequently edited and converted into formats suitable for video, CD and streaming via Web delivery. The completed resources are used in face-to-face, teaching and online learning for students undertaking de Lissa programs and students in transnational programs in arts education. This paper reports preliminary outcomes from this interdisciplinary project for both early childhood students and communications students, and describes the implications for replicating the project in a transnational setting.

Keywords: Early childhood; arts education; multimedia; interdisciplinary; transnational; industry partnerships.