Dr. Iris Berndt lives in Potsdam, she is an art historian, historian and author. She studied Art History, History and Latin Philology of the Middle Ages at Humboldt University Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin, she received her doctorate in 2002 with a thesis on graphic art and print, worked as a trainee at the Dresden State Art Collections, was a consultant for the Museum Association of the State of Brandenburg and was director of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin from 2014 to 2017. Her work focuses on Brandenburg's regional and state history, Carl Blechen and the painting of the Romantic era, as well as painting and graphic art of the 18th and 19th century. Since 2009 she is a member of the Brandenburg Historical Commission.

She devotes much of her time to explorations in the south of the state of Brandenburg. In 2015 she received the Local History Prize of the Elbe-Elster district. In 2019 she published the guide Brandenburgs schöner Süden. Wanderungen durch den Landkreis Elbe-Elster.

Her Wiepersdorf project takes its starting point in Achim von Arnim's commitment to agriculture, his successes and defeats. The theme is today’s life in the village of Wiepersdorf and the question of whether and how the people there can live from their work, and how the surrounding landscape and agriculture are being appreciated. Walks and conversations are the main focus during the Wiepersdorf stay, accompanied by reading, reviewing archival documents and historical literature. Watercolors and photographs will be created during the process, as well as a prose text. These materials will form the starting point for discussions in Wiepersdorf as well as for a special exhibition at the Municipal Museum Jüterbog.