| Studium, Erziehungswissenschaftliche Fakultät

Students at the University of Erfurt develop an audio guide for young visitors to the Dürer exhibition in Apolda

The Association of Arts in Apolda is currently showing the exhibition "Albrecht Dürer - Masterpieces of the Renaissance" and is offering an audio guide for children for the first time. A long-cherished wish, which has now been fulfilled with the support of the art department of the University of Erfurt.

To this end, students have created child-oriented explanations of the works of art and developed an offer for active creative work. The young visitors can now walk through the exhibition, solve search tasks and, on top of that, receive explanations about the art of the Middle Ages and the life of Albrecht Dürer. The audio tour concludes with a request for an interpretation of selected pictures and a sketchy drawing in front of a work of art.

The project is part of a long-term cooperation between the university and the "Kunsthaus Apolda". Art students there will be able to carry out various art education projects as part of their internships and exercises in their professional careers - primarily with children who visit the "Kunsthaus". Ulrike Stutz, professor in the art department of the University of Erfurt: "We plan to continue working with the 'Kunsthaus Apolda' in the future. Because we will not only find exhibitions of outstanding quality there, but also other more favourable conditions. In particular, the great interest in cooperating with us and the openness to the concepts that the students bring to the table are very supportive and motivating".

A special challenge for the students in the current project was to formulate concise texts, not to exceed the length of the spoken texts - about one minute - and to convey essential aspects of the complex and enigmatic works. Prof. Ulrike Stutz: "One focus was to direct the viewers' attention, not to give too many guidelines, but to stimulate the discovery of details. We talked intensively about how to deal with religious references in the works, which could not be explained comprehensively in the short time available, but which the students did not want to present as unquestionable truths. And another task was to make the guide with a total of eight individual texts varied and to stimulate not only contemplation, but also fantasy journeys and the children's own drawing".

It is not only the visitors to the exhibition who benefit from the cooperation between the Kunsthaus and the University of Erfurt, but also the students, who were also able to develop central didactic skills with the development of the audio guide. After all, the project participants are students who later want to work as teachers. For them in particular, it is of great importance to be able to express themselves concisely, vividly and stimulatingly and to open up a space for the children's own perceptions and interpretations. Ulrike Stutz also considers the opportunity for students to work together with local professionals to be a great benefit: "This way they can gain important experience in the area of cooperation between schools and extracurricular partners. The fact that the students have done their job well is attested to by students of the state primary school "Am Schötener Bach" in Apolda, among others. They were allowed to check the finished audio guide in a first test run.

The exhibition can be seen at the Kunsthaus Apolda until April, 13.