Parisian museums take inspiration from the Anglo-Saxons to appeal to children

“It’s me who creates the shapes, I love it. Ricardo, 8 years old, cuts and glues blue, purple and green paper, inspired by Claude Monet's Water Lilies, is undeniable.

“I'm going to tell my friends to come,” he told AFP, discovering the brand new space reserved for families at the Orangerie museum in Paris which opens on Saturday. It was designed within this museum which houses impressionist masterpieces to “make children aware of art and exercise their eyes, allowing families to relax”, explains Claire Bernardi, its director. Located in the heart of the permanent collections, on level -2, it is freely accessible and without reservation, during school holidays, weekends and public holidays, in the heart of the Tuileries gardens.

It offers children from zero to 12 years old and their companions - benefiting from a reduced rate ticket - creative and fun activities (cut-outs, collages, coloring, puzzles, games to recreate works, podcasts, reading. ...) and awareness workshops for toddlers “with a strong focus on those under six years old”, specifies Ms. Bernardi.

“When I arrived,” she said, “I was struck by the number of accompanied children I encountered in the rooms, an impression confirmed by the figures with the share of under-26s increasing from 12% in 2019 to 20 % in 2022.” After introducing specific tools for young audiences such as “an interactive audio guide following the steps of a burglar investigator”, she wanted to “go further by drawing inspiration from what others do elsewhere”.

“Notably the pioneering Anglo-Saxon museums, such as the MoMA in New York or the Tate in London but also the Center Pompidou or the Rodin Museum” in Paris, she explains. Colors, light, furniture... At the Orangerie, everything recalls the famous water lilies and the natural environment that Monet painted in Giverny, his countryside near Paris: tables in the shape of water lilies, a floor reproducing the effect of circles in the water, a stage whose cushions create undulations on which children play in socks.

Alcoves equipped with audio headsets allow them to listen to stories with sound effects. Clémence, 6 years old, seems captivated by “the story of Father Junier’s white mare” which inspired the Douanier (Henri) Rousseau. At his side, Charles, 8 and a half years old, listens to that of “Monet’s little spy, a frog” which “gets him a little drunk”, he says, before rushing to a huge coloring panel where he has spotted his “favorite painting, Monet’s Turkeys.”

Pia, 5 years old, focuses on colorful wall covering and miniature furniture to recreate a painting by Henri Matisse. At his side, Basile, 6 years old, puts his ear to the holes drilled in the partition. He recognizes “the noise of the city,” of “the sea,” and of a musical instrument that he connects to reproductions of impressionist paintings above him.

The face in relief of a model painted by Modigliani also encourages children to discover the work through touch. “At MoMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York, Editor's note), the space is smaller but what seemed interesting to us was the approach through touch, manipulation, listening and slogans that guide them in a few words,” said Ms. Bernardi. “The return to creative attention rather than the passivity of a digital tablet,” she emphasizes.

After the children's gallery at the Center Pompidou, “Le Studio” at the Louvre, opening at the end of 2021, was particularly inspired by museums in Montreal and Toronto to design educational workshops which attracted 420,000 visitors in 2023, according to the museum. Orsay has also been offering since 2022, during the holidays, modeling workshops, drawings and fun discovery of the museum free of charge for children under 12 years old but by reservation. They have welcomed 16,000 children and carers with free access since their opening.