Sep 22, 2026
Can You Feel It? – A Young Perspective on the Old Masters by Students of the Dresden University School
Visitors to the exhibition can also experience co-creation firsthand. On one wall, they can take on the role of curators by arranging high-quality reproductions of selected works on a magnetic wall themselves.
On Saturday, September 19, 2026, the exhibition “Fühlst Du’s?” opened in the Semper Cabinet of the Old Masters Gallery at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections, SKD). The exhibition runs alongside the Correggio retrospective “Correggio: Touchingly Human” through January 10, 2027. Here, students from the Dresden University School (USD) present their fresh perspectives on the Old Masters as part of the first participatory exhibition project with young people at the Dresden Zwinger.
In the frame of the Youth School program at USD, 15 students in grades 7 and 8, working as the “Young Curators” team, spent about a year intensively engaging with artworks from Dresden’s sculpture and painting collection. The result is a space dedicated to the theme of emotions, which highlights feelings as a way to engage with art. The exhibition is primarily aimed at children and young people. It seeks to open up a new way for them to engage with the works of the Old Masters.
Guided tours titled “POV: Emotional Chaos—An Interactive Tour of the Special Exhibition ‘Can You Feel It?’” are scheduled for October 18, 2026, and December 13, 2026. Full details can be found on the website of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections).
At the exhibition opening at Café Algarotti in the Zwinger, Prof. Dr. Holger Jacob-Friesen, director of the Galerie Alte Meister, answered questions from the students during a panel discussion. © Stephan Wittig
The young people, their families, and the project staff gathered at the café for the exhibition opening. © Stephan Wittig
A group within the “Young Curators” team created a model of the exhibition space and, in doing so, came up with a solution for attaching the reproductions to one of the exhibition walls using magnets. © Maria Neuland Agüero
The teenagers also designed the flyer—which features two different covers when folded—in collaboration with the experts from SKD. © Pascal Ziehm
At the exhibition opening, just as at the curatorial meetings, there was something to soothe everyone's nerves. © Maria Neuland Agüero
The exhibition's entrance area draws on the motif of shimmering soap bubbles from the painting “The Graff Sons, Carl Anton and Georg, Playing with Soap Bubbles” (c. 1784) by Heinrich Freudweiler. © Maria Neuland Agüero
Visitors to the exhibition can also experience co-creation firsthand. On one wall, they can take on the role of curators by arranging high-quality reproductions of selected works on a magnetic wall themselves. © Stephan Wiegand
Director Prof. Dr. Holger Jacob-Friesen explores the exhibition and the wall featuring movable paintings. © Maria Neuland Agüero
At a podcast station, guests listen to student-produced podcasts to learn more about the paintings and why they were selected. © Stephan Wiegand
Visitors to the exhibition can also experience co-creation firsthand. On one wall, they can take on the role of curators by arranging high-quality reproductions of selected works on a magnetic wall themselves. © Maria Neuland Agüero
The flyer “Can You Feel It?” features two different covers to promote the accompanying exhibition for the major Correggio retrospective at the Zwinger in Dresden. © Maria Neuland Agüero
The students of the Dresden University School worked closely with SKD experts and the museum education team to prepare the selection of works and their presentation. Solving real-world problems is of great importance in the pedagogical concept of the Dresden University School. As part of the Youth School program for grades 7 and 8, this is also put into practice at off-campus learning locations.
For Katja Wiechmann, director of the youth school, the museum “simply offers a different kind of experience. There, the young people stand in front of an original, not a picture in a book. They move around the space, they discuss, they collaborate with experts. That changes their attitude: the subject matter becomes a real encounter.” She describes how participation and self-efficacy—two central concepts of the Dresden University School trial —came to life in the curatorial project: “When a 13-year-old sees that her idea is actually displayed in the Old Masters gallery and that visitors are engaging with it, that’s an experience no grade can ever replicate. She realizes: What I think and do makes a difference.” According to the educator, through out-of-school learning, students learn—almost incidentally—what it means to take on responsibility, find compromises, and handle criticism. Sebastian Richter, a learning facilitator at the youth school, describes this new way of experiencing museums as another lasting effect: “A different perspective on culture was the added bonus. Many young people had hardly ever been to an art gallery before. Now they experience museums as places that belong to them, too, and where their perspective is valued.”
The article "Herbst in der Jugendschule – Botanik, Kulinarik und Ausstellungsprojekt Correggio „Fühlst du’s?“ im Zwinger" on the Dresden University School website provides insights into the work of the curatorial team.
About the University School Dresden
The pilot project consists of 3 parts: school for kids from Dresden, research project at the Chair of Education / Inclusive education, and a future training and continuing education school at TU Dresden. Please activate English subtitles. © Projekt Universitätsschule Dresden
Dresden University School is a joint project of the City of Dresden and the Dresden University of Technology. It is a free, public community school run by the city, where innovative forms of teaching and learning are tested under scientific supervision. In addition, it is a training school for future teachers and, in the future, a further education school for teachers. The school trial is being scientifically supported by the ForUS Research Unit at TU Dresden.
Read more about TU Dresden’s research project: tu-dresden.de/gsw/unischule
Read more about University School Dresden: universitaetsschule.org
You can catch a glimpse inside the research project and daily school life on various social media channels at: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. There are also regular updates on University School Dresden in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences newsletter.
Media contact:
Maria Neuland Agüero
Communications Manager
University School Dresden Project
TUD Dresden University of Technology
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Education
Chair of Inclusive Education
Tel.: +49 351 463 41229
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