PUBLIC Award

"Intime et moi", an exhibition made by the public for the public

The Louvre-Lens is offering young people on civic service contracts with the L'Envol association, young jobseekers and students from the universities of Lille and Arras the chance to organize an exhibition and its cultural program.

For Marie Lavandier, the museum's director, the Louvre-Lens is "a museum open to all, innovative and participative. It's important that everyone's needs, desires and dreams are heard". With this in mind, and to mark its 10th anniversary, the museum is launching an unprecedented participatory exhibition project, to be held between December 2022 and March 2023, covering some 1,000 m2. Around the theme of intimacy, chosen by the mediation team, the exhibition is imagined, thought out and designed by 10 young people on civic service contracts with the L'Envol association. They are supported throughout the project by the Musée du Louvre-Lens team, professionals and artists. Some twenty works are on loan from the Louvre, the FRAC Grand Large (Dunkirk), the MUDO (Beauvais), the Musée des beaux-arts d'Arras and La Piscine - Musée d'art et d'industrie André Diligent (Roubaix). In addition to the exhibition design and scenography, the curators are also working on the catalog texts and signage. Cultural programming around the exhibition has been entrusted to other young people from the local mission in Lens-Liévin, students from Lille, pupils from the Lens art school and Lens social centers. "The museum will learn as much from these young people as we will from them," says Marie Lavandier. The ongoing experiment is already bearing fruit: "I liked it because I learned other styles of writing. I can see that the project is really starting to take shape. I've seen works of art that I'd probably never have seen, because I don't necessarily have the means to do that," confides Julie.

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Contact: Gautier Verbeke, Mediation Manager - gautier.verbeke@louvrelens.fr

Budget: €151,000

Partnership: Total Energies Foundation

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The museum

Opened in December 2012, Louvre-Lens is located in the former Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Galerie du Temps is the heart of the museum, with over 200 masterpieces from the Louvre collections and some 18 objects from the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, offering a unique journey through 5,000 years of history and art history. A true cultural city, Louvre-Lens is a museum committed to its region, promoting cultural democratization, artistic education, employment and the fight against exclusion and inequality. Louvre-Lens is the 2nd most visited museum in the region - with over 530,000 visitors per year - after the Musée des Confluences in Lyon.

Solutions to real-world problems

Launched in 2019, "V&A Innovate" is a major creative design competition aimed at all English pupils between the ages of 11 and 14.

"The ideas these young people have created as part of the "V&A Innovate" programme are so relevant that it was very moving to hear them." So said Ade Adepitan MBE, TV host and Paralympic medalist, at the end of the jury for the latest edition of "V&AInnovate", the school challenge dedicated to promoting design professions and creativity. Created in 2019, it enables students aged 11 to 14 to take part in an annual design competition. The process is simple: a teacher, who has access to an extensive online resource center (animations, lesson plans, etc.), registers one or more teams of 4 to 6 young people. He or she will supervise them for a minimum of 6 hours. Each team has to come up with a creative response to the V&A's theme for the year, linked to its collections or exhibitions. The aim is to enable young people to develop their design skills by responding to a specific problem. Following a pre-selection process, a one-day event is organized in London to enable the 10 best projects to be defended before a jury of experts. Several Award are presented, and the winning team can then take part in a bespoke designer-led workshop linked to their idea, either at the V&A or at the school. The aim now is to reach more students, well beyond London and the south of England.

Contact: Chloe Johnson, Head of Grants - cam.johnson@vam.ac.uk

Budget: €114960

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The museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts, design and sculpture, housing a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects spanning 5,000 years of art and human ingenuity. The museum brings its collections to life through innovative scenography in the permanent galleries, breathtaking exhibitions, world-class research and inclusive discovery activities. 

The museum was founded to inspire the designers and craftsmen of the future. Its founder, Henry Cole, described the museum as "a school classroom for everyone". This idea has never disappeared, and is still one of the museum's main aspirations today.

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"We are truly delighted to receive this Art Explora - Académie des beaux-arts Award for the V&A Innovate project, a national competition for young people whose theme is inspired by our collection, which spans over 5,000 years of creative disciplines. This award comes at a time when creative education has never been more vital for young people. It enables them to develop the skills to better face and solve problems, collaborate and develop critical thinking. This Award is a tremendous encouragement and testament to the tireless work of both educators and young people in this complex pandemic context, in which museums also play a fundamental role as places of emancipation and inspiration for the next generation of creators and thinkers. The Award will enable us to develop V&A Innovate and strengthen our support for young people so that they can look to the future with optimism through the prism of design. We are extremely grateful to Art Explora for recognizing the value of our programme."

Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum

A sensory kit to stimulate memory

"Les Sens de la Mémoire" offers elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative illnesses a sensory kit to stimulate distant and immediate memory.

There is an urgent need to address the problem of isolation of dependent elderly people, particularly those suffering from neurodegenerative disorders. In France, over a million people are currently affected, and this figure will double in 20 years' time. Studies show that contact with works of art has a real impact on the physical and mental health of the population...This is why the Monnaie de Paris has multiplied its initiatives, even winning the "Tourism and Disability" label in 2020. Convinced that currency is a powerful vector of individual and collective memory, it has created specific itineraries within the museum and now wants to go beyond its walls to meet isolated patients by offering them a "multisensory and digital" kit. In concrete terms, the kit, which will be offered to patients and their carers, will include objects to handle, smell and listen to, a memory game, digital tablets with integrated applications, coloring books or comic strips recalling the history of a currency, and an art workshop. The idea is to stimulate memory, the senses, fine motor skills and reflection, as well as to reinforce or create social interaction and restore the self-esteem and dignity of patients. The museum hopes to develop these kits and adapt them to other audiences, notably hospitalized sick children, young people with autism spectrum disorders, ULIS classes; and why not, in time, evolve them towards a wider vulnerable public. The ambitious goal is to reach 30,000 people a year, with each kit benefiting around 700.

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Contact: Stéphanie Molinard, Head of Programs and Cultural Action - stephanie.molinard@monnaiedeparis.fr

Budget: €122,500

Partnership: Association France Alzheimer/Groupe SOS/The Fondation des Artistes retreat house

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Contact: Stéphanie Molinard - Head of Programs and Cultural Action - stephanie.molinard@monnaiedeparis.fr

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The museum

The Musée de la Monnaie de Paris, located next to the Monnaie de Paris factory, is dedicated to the arts of metal. A unique venue for multi-sensory experiences, it showcases expertise by placing the men and women at work in the workshops at the heart of the museum's itinerary. Designed with universal design in mind, so that it's accessible to all, the tour invites you to take part in the experience, to understand what goes on behind the scenes of this temple to coinage and arts and crafts, before plunging into a marvellous universe of expressions, myths and treasures - that of coinage. 

"Winning the European Art Explora Award from the Académie des beaux-arts is the crowning achievement of La Monnaie de Paris' efforts to promote accessibility, particularly for those
suffering from Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. This is a great honor for us, and enables us to reinforce our vocation of transmission and openness to the greatest
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With "Les sens de la mémoire", La Monnaie de Paris wanted to develop a multi-sensory and digital itinerant kit project to meet the needs of dependent elderly people. Through coins, a memorial object, a vector of exchange and a generator of social ties, we offer a range of activities designed to stimulate memory through cognitive, artistic and sensory mediation.

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Marc SCHWARTZ,
Chairman and CEO of La Monnaie de Paris

The home loan challenge

"Musée comme chez soi" (Museum as home) involves organizing home loans of works of art in the vicinity of the museum, in neighborhoods with a strong social mix.

"For me, museums should never be safes," says Claire Leblanc, Director of the Musée d'Ixelles. Taking advantage of its closure for renovation until 2024, the Musée d'Ixelles has taken up the challenge of breaking down walls, by offering a few local residents the chance to host a work in their home for a weekend. At the same time, they agreed to let visitors - family, friends and neighbors, as well as curious passers-by and museum regulars - discover the work. The sociology of the neighborhood offers an opportunity to reach an audience unfamiliar with cultural institutions. An operation of this kind calls for a solid canvassing effort upstream: posters, meetings with associations, participation in festivities, etc. Then the creation of a host-mediator tandem, to take care of all the details, from the safe reception of the work to the mediation. "The important thing is simply to allow people to talk about the work in their own words, with their own story," explains one mediator. The first edition was a resounding success, not least for its conviviality. The initiative, which has already been renewed, will ultimately lead to the creation of a large community of ambassadors who will be involved in the discussions surrounding the museum's reopening.

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Contact: Stéphanie Masuy, Head of Audience Services - stephanie.masuy@ixelles.brussels

Budget: €123,080

Partnership: Heritage on wheels

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The museum

Founded in 1892, the Musée d'Ixelles occupies a prime position on the Belgian cultural scene. Its permanent collections, comprising 12,000 works, offer a broad panorama of Belgian art from the 19th century to the present day, and include a number of "happy accidents" such as works by Miró, Picasso and the complete collection of original posters by Toulouse-Lautrec. Currently undergoing renovation and expansion, the Musée d'Ixelles is deploying a transitional project of dynamic intra- and extra-muros closure under the label "Museum in Progress", until the reopening in 2024.

Musée comme chez soi" is a participatory project that creates links. It is also a great lesson in humility for the museum teams: the status of the work and its appropriation are totally revisited. After six editions, winning the Award Art Explora is a wonderful opportunity to develop this extraordinary adventure in another neighboring district that is clearly less familiar with the museum."

Claire LEBLANC, Director, Musée d'Ixelles

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The National Gallery

"National Gallery: Jan van Huysum Visits..." Exhibiting a National Gallery masterpiece outside the museum, in direct contact with the public.
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The project

National Gallery: Jan Van Huysum Visits is the sequel to the highly successful Artemisia Visits project, conducted in 2019. For Artemisia Visits, Artemisia Gentileschi's self-portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1615-1617) was presented in five non-museum venues across the UK: a doctor's surgery, a girls' school, a women's prison and two libraries. Never before has a 17th-century painting from a national collection been exhibited in this way, making it a unique project. In 2021, the National Gallery plans to tour Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1736-1737) by Jan van Huysum. This eighteenth-century painting will appear in six new unusual locations across the UK, with the aim of promoting wellbeing, particularly among audiences who have been most affected by COVID 19. The National Gallery will be working with a range of cultural and social partners on this project.

The National Gallery

Founded by Parliament in 1824, the National Gallery houses one of the world's largest collections of paintings, taking visitors on a journey through the art of Western Europe over seven centuries, from the 13th to the 20th century (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Velàzquez, Titian, Rembrandt, Turner, Monet, Van Gogh...). The museum's main objectives are to enrich the collection, preserve it and make it accessible to all visitors.

Contact

Tracy Jones - Head of press, public relations and public affairs - tracy.jones@ng-london.org.uk

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

"#VersionaThyssen" : Calling on 16-35 year olds to reinterpret the museum's works in their own way and post this reinterpretation on social media with the hashtag #VersionaThyssen
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The project

This project has already run for seven years, with an eighth currently underway. In each edition, the museum invites young people to freely reinterpret one or more works from its collections and post their creations on social media using the hashtag #VersionaThyssen . A jury of professional artists selects the winners. The creations are showcased at festive events at the museum or during virtual ceremonies during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 5,000 reinterpretations have already been submitted.

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum houses the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, owned by the Spanish State, in the Villahermosa Palace in Madrid. The collection comprises nearly nine hundred works of art spanning from the 13th to the 20th centuries.

Contact

Pepa Octavio de Toledo - Head of Sponsorship - portaviodetoledo@museothyssen.org

MUCEM

"Destination MUCEM": A free bus service is set up every Sunday to facilitate access to the MUCEM from outlying neighborhoods.
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The project

Destination Mucem is a unique initiative to improve accessibility for underserved communities: every Sunday, a free bus service departs from outlying neighborhoods, allowing new audiences to forge a special connection with the museum. Personalized and engaging activities are offered during the journey, preparing visitors for their visit in a friendly atmosphere. Upon arrival at the museum, passengers receive a free ticket. The bus will serve four different routes, and its arrival will be supported by a comprehensive communication campaign targeting local stakeholders.

MUCEM

The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MUCEM) is conceived as a cultural hub in the heart of Marseille. It represents the rich cultural, social, scientific and political diversity of the Mediterranean world and offers major artistic, historical and thematic exhibitions and numerous events for all audiences.

Contact: Béatrice Goudard - Events Coordinator - beatrice.goudard@mucem.org

"New Horizons: Disabled-led change and representation in European outdoor arts festivals", FESTIVAL.ORG, United Kingdom

FESTIVAL.ORG proposes a ground-breaking international project to grow Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent (DDN) audiences for outdoor arts, through a collaborative, replicable model rooted in local lived experience, alongside a tour of a new disabled-led participatory show Dancefloor Activist. This pilot will be a collaboration between Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF) (UK), Festival dos Canais (Portugal), Zomer van Antwerpen (Belgium), and La Mercè (Spain).

While Europe has made important strides in improving disability representation and access within performing arts, DDN audiences still remain underrepresented and underserved.

This award would support three strands of activity:

The presentation and access costs of touring an exceptional new piece of disabled-led performance Dancefloor Activist.

A programme of community-led audience engagement to connect with DDN communities across the four festivals, with a particular focus on Dancefloor Activist.

A programme of training, development and capacity building to strengthen the partners’ ability to engage and warmly welcome large and diverse DDN audiences at their festivals.

Our overarching aims for this project are to increase DDN attendance to outdoor arts across Europe, through building trust and relationships with these communities, and to develop the capacity and ability of European cultural organisations to engage and welcome these groups.

© Photo : David Levene

"Cinemini Europe: Including All", Eye Filmmuseum, Netherlands

Cinemini Europe: Including all is a film education project, designed in collaboration with several European partners, aimed at children aged 3 – 6 with a hearing impairment to introduce them to cinema in a playful and meaningful way and to offer them a new language to express themselves. The Cinemini Europe consortium was originally founded in 2019 and developed a toolkit for educational and film professionals across Europe and the rest of the world, to provide them with practical tools to design high-quality film education activities for the young age group of 3 - 6, which is currently underserved. Through creative activities, children explore film as an art form and experience a carefully curated selection of short European films – ranging from early cinema classics to contemporary animations and experimental works. While Cinemini is technically accessible for children with a hearing impairment, it is not yet truly meaningful or empowering for them. With support from the Art Explora Prize, we aim to co-create new inclusive tools and film selections in collaboration with this target group – ensuring the programme is not only accessible, but genuinely relevant and impactful for children with a hearing impairment.

© Photo : Eye Filmmuseum