The latest definition of the museum proposed by ICOM highlights the participative dimension of museums. This dimension requires a better understanding of a museum’s audiences, in order to offer more participative experiences. To illustrate some of the trends on this subject, Museum Connections organized an online meet-up in mid-July on new forms of visit ( see the replay). On this occasion, two approaches were presented:
- An event-driven, experiential approach through an immersive theatrical journey proposed by Sculpteurs de Rêves and the Musée national de la Marine to mark the reopening of the museum’s Parisian site after 6 years of (re)welcoming visitors.
- A study conducted by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, in conjunction with the Millénaire de Caen program, aims to shed light on what connects visitors to museums and what a visit to a museum means to them in terms of well-being.
Although these projects are the fruit of very different approaches, they share a common objective: to rethink the link between collections and visitors, taking into account the feelings of audiences in all their diversity. These two projects are also leading to new forms of collaboration between museums and the business and research sectors.
This article explores these two examples and links to other inspiring projects, showing the exciting experiments underway in cultural institutions to enrich the visitor experience.
1 “Le Passage de la Ligne”, an immersive theatrical experience to (re)welcome visitors to the Musée de la Marine
The Musée national de la Marine has chosen to mark its reopening after six years of renovations with a bold initiative: a huge immersive play in the museum’s tour from November 17 to 19, 2023. This project was presented by Léna BONNOT, Mediation Officer at Musée national de la Marine, and Romane PROVOST, Creative Director at Sculpteurs de Rêves, who was responsible for the design and operation of this festive weekend.
Firstly, the museum’s mediation teams defined the broad lines of this event, with the aim of highlighting maritime intangible heritage through a theatrical re-enactment of the passage of the line, a maritime tradition of hazing for sailors crossing the equator for the first time. Their aim was to transform visitors into actors, enabling them to discover the museum’s works and architecture in an original way, but above all adapted to all visitor profiles.
Indeed, to ensure that such an experience was accessible to as many people as possible, the challenges facing the project were manifold. The event had to allow a visit without a predetermined order (like the museographic tour), accommodate a heterogeneous audience, and guarantee total accessibility, particularly for people with disabilities. These objectives guided the decision to stage a life-size immersive play, the production of which was entrusted to a specialized service provider, Sculpteurs de Rêves, which has worked on over forty shows for museums and brands.
Romane PROVOST recounted the creative process behind the experience (six months), marked by close collaboration between the two partners. A storyline was drawn up in which visitors, greeted by mythological characters (e.g. Poseidon), had to follow a course punctuated by trials, becoming “knight-mariners”. Throughout the preparation phase, the actors were given detailed scientific training on the works. They integrated this knowledge into their performance, ensuring a faithful and educational staging. Every interaction, costume and make-up was carefully designed in relation to the works, and visitors used a passport to ensure they participated in every stage of the experience.
The result was a modular layout, adaptable to the different profiles of visitors, whether regulars, the curious or gamers. The success of the event was reflected in the attendance of almost 2,000 people over the reopening weekend. In addition, a group of deaf people, accompanied by an interpreter, were able to participate fully in the activities, a particularly important issue for the Museum, which in this respect received the “Brest Practice” award from the international council of museums ICOM CECA for the universal accessibility approach implemented, in a general way, in the itinerary of the Musée National de la Marine in Paris.
| Some other inspiring similar projects: – The “Mortel week-end” show organized by 5ème Acte for the Domaine de Candé. – The Secret Défense show was launched by Polaris Productions at the Château de Rambouillet. – Le Fléau experience at the Domaine du Palais Royal by Léonard Matton’s company. – La Casa de Papel: The Experience by Fever at the Monnaie de Paris |
This type of partnership makes it possible to explore new approaches to mediation and broaden the educational and cultural perspectives of museum institutions. Musée national de la Marine emphasized the importance of collaborating with specialists in the stage format for this type of event. Les Sculpteurs de Rêves’ expertise in costume, props and staging was essential to the event’s success.
These events and collaborations enrich the museum offer by creating new forms of relationship between the museum, its collections and its visitors. This dynamic calls into question the place of the public in museums, both from the point of view of reception, as shown by the example of the Musée de la Marine, and in a more scientific way, as practiced at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen. The latter has developed a research project around sensitive mediation in partnership with laboratories, universities and experimental platforms, opening up new perspectives on the interaction between the public and collections.
2. Neurological research at the Caen Museum of Fine Arts for the well-being of its visitors
In 2019, the World Health Organization Europe published a report based on the “Learning from the Arts” conference held in Budapest. This report explores how to integrate artistic activities into healthcare systems to complement the treatment and prevention of non-communicable diseases, highlighting the benefits of art for physical and mental health. It recognizes that art can offer solutions that complement those of traditional medicine. This approach, popularized in Canada with the famous “cultural prescriptionsis also finding examples in France, as in the case of the project presented by the Musée des Beaux-arts de Caen.
The Normandy museum’s “Art, well-being and the brain” study is an arts-sciences initiative exploring the place of visitors and their relationship with the museum, focusing on neuroscientific and well-being aspects. This scientific and cultural research project was presented by Marina CAVAILLÈS, Director of Culture at the Communauté Urbaine de Caen la Mer, and Anne BERNARDO, Head of Communications at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Caen.
First of all, the study is part of a framework, that of the millennium of Caena celebration commemorating the city’s millennium with a rich cultural program combining science, the arts, history and economics, and taking place in various emblematic locations around the city. For the Communauté Urbaine de Caen la Mer, one of the millennium objectives was to establish a dynamic of co-constructed collaboration, and to facilitate synergies between different research players in the area, combining their expertise in a complementary way. A project has been developed with the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen to explore the impact of works of art on individuals, and to renew mediation approaches by emphasizing the beneficial effects of these interactions.
For its part, the Musée des Beaux-arts de Caen has been exploring the links between art and well-being for several years, notably through yoga sessions. Recently, the museum’s Projet Scientifique et Culturel (PSC) emphasized the importance of links between artworks and the public. In April 2022, during the organization of Caen’s millennium, the museum was invited to co-construct projects, choosing to focus on the theme of art and health, in perfect continuity with its previous initiatives.
The “Art, well-being and the brain: an essential encounter?” project brings together several specialist partners: the GIP Cyceron (brain engineering platform), the CERN Laboratory (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the University of Caen, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire and the CNRS. The study, currently underway, aims to measure the impact of museum visits and works of art on visitors’ well-being by observing their emotions. The aim is to understand how art influences emotions by measuring participants’ brain flows, gaze and heartbeats. At present, one of the major challenges is to observe cerebral blood flow during visits without resorting to an imposing conventional MRI machine. Thanks to a recent technology, the IMS headband, it is now possible to replace the MRI and carry out these measurements directly in the museum. This innovation makes it possible to monitor visitor reactions in real time.
In terms of design, the study is divided into several structured phases to ensure scientific rigor and validity of results. The first phase consists in establishing detailed hospital protocols, a long and painstaking process, to guarantee the safety and efficacy of the measurements. Next, a selection of 200 volunteers, divided into three large groups to explore different visiting conditions: a self-guided visit of four paintings, a visit with mediation, and a visit in pairs. Each group is exposed to four series of three paintings, chosen in a balanced way to include a portrait, a genre scene and a landscape, in order to avoid biases linked to the types of paintings.
An approach that could transform museum practices by highlighting the psychophysiological benefits of art and guiding the development of new strategies to enrich the visitor experience in other museums.
| Some other inspiring similar projects: – The APPREN’ART study between L’Établissement Public des musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, in association with Université Paris-Est Créteil and Centre Hospitalier Henri Laborit de Poitiers (this project has launched a call for participation, you can contact Carla TOME for more information); – The ” Louvre-Thérapie” at Louvre-Lens. – Le Hamo, a cultural mediation space inaugurated in 2023 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, which pays particular attention to the mental health of visitors. – The podcast “Museums and Chill – How I know what I know: museum and neuroscience” proposed by ICOM. |
These projects illustrate how museums are innovating to offer new forms of visit, focusing on the visitor experience. Musée national de la Marine , with its immersive theatrical experience, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, with its study of the effects of art on visitor well-being, demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. These initiatives open up promising prospects for transforming the relationship between museums and their audiences, by placing visitor experience at the heart of mediation and museum missions.
Baudouin DUCHANGE
