What if music became a way of learning about oneself? This is the challenge that the Réidener Jugendtreff took up, running regular music workshops for young people aged 12 to 20 from March 2025 to June 2026. The workshops covered singing, songwriting, performance and stage presence. The young participants were mentored by instructors such as Pascal Gualandris, Don Gio and Claudio Borri, and received constant support from the Jugendtreff’s educational team.

The project quickly expanded beyond the realm of music. Rehearsals became opportunities to discuss topics such as self-confidence, stress management, and emotional expression. The team tailored the workshops to the participants’ needs. By the time more than fifty sessions had been completed, around sixty young people had taken part in the project, including twenty-five who were involved from start to finish, right through to the group recording and production of a music video, which was shared on social media. Several initially more reserved young people went on to play a leading role in the group, gaining confidence and artistic initiative. The project even attracted young people who did not usually participate in the Jugendtreff’s musical activities.

What if hip-hop became a space for learning how to fall, and how to get back up? That is the aim of the Nikki Ninja project, which, over the course of twelve workshops from January to March 2026, brought together two classes with very different backgrounds, where fifteen nationalities came together in the same room. Guided by Nicole Bausch and Gilles Seyler, the thirty children explored the world of Nikki Ninja by writing their first rap lyrics, whilst tackling, in a light-hearted way, issues that affect them closely: the right to make mistakes, what they dream of becoming, and what their lives will be like in twenty years’ time.

The project wasn’t limited to writing: the pupils from Mersch designed their own costumes alongside costume designer Alexandra Lichtenberger, whilst those from Eich learnt the basics of graffiti with graphic designer Sascha di Giambattista. Two ways of discovering that creativity can also be a profession. A guided tour of Neimënster, where the stage and its technical backstage areas were revealed to them, rounded off this journey ahead of the album’s release in early June, followed by a tour of open-air performances across the country. Over the course of the sessions, lasting bonds of trust were forged, opening the door to discussions about what makes them feel sad, happy or angry. It is in this closeness that Nikki Ninja finds its uniqueness: helping each child to identify their own ‘super ninja power’.

What does it mean to be a man today? It is this question, born of a very personal reflection by the actor Jan Jaroszek following the birth of his son, that the Mierscher Theater has chosen to bring to the stage. Not as a thesis, but as an act of listening. Even before opening the stage’s ‘locker room’, the creative team, led by Jan Jaroszek, Therese Lösch and Romy Weyrauch, visited seven classes in five secondary schools across the country, where, in an atmosphere of trust, they gathered the young people’s views, doubts and lived experiences regarding masculinity and gender norms. It is these very voices, recorded and sometimes recognised by their own speakers in the audience, that form the raw material of the show, structured as a news feed made up of fragments and situations that echo one another.

This dialogue did not end with the final workshop session: the participating classes remained involved in the creative process right up to the premiere on 9 and 10 June 2026 at the Mierscher Theater, and the project will continue in the autumn with a conference and a round-table discussion open to the public. This initiative was carried out with the support of the Ministry for Gender Equality and Diversity and infoMann to ensure its pedagogical accuracy.

How can a classic musical tale be transformed into a genuine community project? In Hobscheid, the Harmonie Habscht and its young musicians from Mezzo Forté Bléiser have chosen to answer this question by involving the town’s two Cycle 2.2 classes in every stage of the creation of ‘Pierchen an de Wollef’, from May 2025 to March 2026. The children did not just prepare the show: they helped shape its visual identity alongside a professional photographer, from the logo right through to the puzzles and colouring pages handed out to the audience. On stage, the cast was expanded well beyond that of the original work so that as many children as possible, including those who did not wish to perform, could find a role.

Meanwhile, the young musicians of Mezzo Forté Bléiser built the set alongside a retired carpenter and made their costumes with a costume designer and a seamstress, discovering craft skills rarely associated with music in the process. The two performances, held in front of a thousand spectators at the Centre polyvalent de Hobscheid, revealed a newfound stage confidence among the children and their two young narrators.

From October 2025 to July 2026, 17 students from class S5L2 at the École Internationale de Differdange, guided by the director and actor Serge Wolfsperger, delved into their own family histories of exile and migration. Drawing on personal objects, photographs and home films, they wrote autobiographical stories in their mother tongue, which were translated into French, before developing them further through theatre and film work inspired by Laurent Gaudé’s play ‘Caillasses‘. From writing to staging, via filming and commenting on their own footage, the students became narrators and spokespeople for family stories that had often remained hidden.

These intimate narratives, developed through a series of discussions, took shape in the exhibition ‘Objets Migrateurs’, which run for several months at the Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines (CDMH) in Dudelange, from the opening on 4 July until the closing at the end of October 2026.

Artelier is a project conceived and organized by the youth collective F.O.M.O. (Friends Who Organize Magical Occasions), in partnership with Stayfou asbl. Held on January 24, 2026, at Les Rotondes under the theme “Rediscovering Winter’s Beauty,” the event offered a warm and inspiring day featuring a variety of creative workshops. Designed by young people for young people, the project aimed to make local culture more accessible, highlight local artists and initiatives, and strengthen community ties during the winter months. The program was a huge success: more than 190 participants took part in the event. The overwhelmingly positive feedback and enthusiasm generated by this open and participatory format have confirmed the value of this initiative, which fully demonstrates young people’s ability to conceive and carry out ambitious and unifying cultural projects.

Bringing together the amateur and professional worlds of dance: this has been the mission of the AWA Platform since its creation in 2018 by choreographers Baptiste Hilbert and Catarina Barbosa. For its fourth edition, running from February 16 to March 1, 2026, the biennial brought together dancers from across the country and beyond, with workshops held at TROIS C-L and performances at Kinneksbond.

The professional masterclasses, led by international collectives such as VERONAL and Fighting Monkey, were fully booked every day. On the amateur side, the Platform continued the inclusive programme it launched in 2024, with workshops dedicated to the over-55s, young people and people with disabilities, led by the English dance educator Joel O’Donoghue. The highlight of this year’s festival was a new work by choreographer Anne-Mareike Hess with the CND Luxembourg Junior Company, which gave young aspiring dancers the chance to experience a professional creative process from the inside. Both the opening and closing nights, which featured eight pieces by emerging choreographers, were sold out.

Public speaking, debating, persuading: these are just some of the skills that the Eloquentia programme helps Luxembourg secondary school students develop each year. For this second edition, held from 17 to 21 November 2025, ten groups from six secondary schools across the country came together for five days, guided by trainers from the Eloquentia association, to practise public speaking techniques. The novelty of this edition lay in its central theme: fair trade textiles. By partnering with the ‘Rethink Your Clothes’ campaign run by the NGO Fairtrade Lëtzebuerg, the competition, renamed for the occasion ‘I wear, therefore I think’, invited students to transform their questions about fashion and consumption into committed speeches. One hundred secondary school students learned how to deliver a message close to their hearts in front of an audience, culminating in the grand final organised on 8 December 2025 at Neimënster by the Institut français du Luxembourg, in front of 120 spectators.

Beyond the public speaking itself, a sense of group dynamic took hold: the students supported and encouraged one another throughout the workshops, with each participant gaining confidence as the others became more comfortable speaking. Supported by the Fondation Sommer since its first edition in 2023, alongside the Institut français du Luxembourg and the Association Victor Hugo, the project has been further enriched this year by a new partnership with Fairtrade Lëtzebuerg, a sign that the programme continues to evolve with each successive edition.

Growing up with the festival: when children become creators

In Esch-sur-Sûre, a barn becomes a theatre, a garage becomes a gallery and a church becomes a stage for creatures born from children’s imaginations. Every two years, the Marionettefestival transforms the village of Tadler into an open-air stage.

During the 2023 and 2025 editions of the festival, the Fondation Sommer supported two educational projects: ‘Vu Marionetten an alen Trottinetten’ and ‘Vergiess de Gaardenzwerg!’. Led by the non-profit organisation Esch(t)Kultur, these two projects aimed to involve groups of young people from the Maison Relais and the Campus am Ale Bësch in Eschdorf in creating artistic works to be included in the festival programme.

Following the 2025 edition, the Fondation Sommer and Esch(t)Kultur discussed how children and young people could be more closely involved in designing the festival. This led to the idea of using the gap year between editions to forge lasting links between children, artists, the primary school, the Maison Relais, and the local community.

Since 2026, the Fondation Sommer has supported and guided the non-profit organisation Esch(t)Kultur in its strategic planning regarding the involvement of children and young people in the festival, as well as the long-term partnerships formed.

From spectators to creators

The Marionettefestival is an international event dedicated to the arts of puppetry and contemporary object theatre. Every two years, performances, workshops and activities are held in sometimes unexpected venues across the rural area of Esch-sur-Sûre, such as barns, residents’ garages and the village square.

While children used to be invited to watch performances as part of school trips or with their families, they are now encouraged to play an active role in creating the festival. Supported by professional artists, they experiment with creating and imagining artistic forms within their own environment.

Learning by doing

The educational projects from previous editions and the long-term programme are based on an active approach to learning: learning by doing.

Children are not just given explanations about the art of puppetry. Instead, they handle materials, test ideas, transform everyday objects, and collaborate to bring their imagination to life.

This approach makes artistic creation tangible and accessible. It encourages creativity, independence, and teamwork while prompting reflection on how ordinary objects can become part of an artistic creation.

A creative project taking place within the local community

The programme takes place in a rural setting, where the festival has strong links with the local community and cultural organisations. This local dimension is essential: children discover art in familiar surroundings and play a part in transforming their environment into a creative space.

They create work for a real audience and see it incorporated into the festival they are taking part in. Their creations do not remain in the classroom: they become an integral part of the Marionettefestival and are viewed and discovered by local residents.

The long-term programme aims to build a sustainable partnership between the festival, the primary school, the Maison Relais, and cultural professionals in the region. This partnership is based on shared values of participation, experimentation, and inclusion.

The municipality of Esch-sur-Sûre covers a large area, and not all children at Campus am Ale Bësch Primary School live in the same villages. This initiative strengthens their sense of belonging to an event in their own municipality. Art therefore becomes a means of participating in the life of the local community.

What if a simple everyday object, found at the back of a drawer or at a car boot sale, could become a work of art? This was the experience of a group of children from the Maison Relais and a Cycle 4.1 year group at the Campus am Ale Bësch in Eschdorf, working alongside the artist Lynn Scheidweiler. Over the course of fifteen two-hour workshops, between February and July 2025, the children observed, repurposed and transformed found or recycled objects, giving them an unexpected new lease of life. These installations were then set up in the rural landscape of Tadler, forming part of the Marionettefestival programme in the form of a treasure hunt inviting families to go in search of curiosities. To create this trail, the children could count on the support of Pit Krack, the village’s collector and second-hand dealer, who not only provided the vintage objects to be reworked but also organised the hunt for curiosities through the village streets himself. On 10 June 2025, a morning of performances brought together 400 children from the municipality of Esch-sur-Sûre, followed by a walk during which everyone discovered their classmates’ creations. The most curious children went home with a paper theatre specially created by the illustrator Annick Sinner. Over the course of the project, the young participants moved from being spectators to becoming creators and initiators of their own projects.