This article goes behind the scenes of a new exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art that was co-curated with middle and high school students. The children and teens helped select and write labels for a selection of photographs depicting children, stretching their empathetic and analytical muscles in the process.

“In analyzing a photograph, Kayne tries not to think ‘about the background or foreground or size,’ he said. ‘I just think what is it about the picture — what’s the person doing that makes me feel some type of way?'”