The Louvre-Lens, an opportunity for Lens... and for the Louvre

It has often been said that the Louvre-Lens is a great opportunity for Lens and the Nord-Pas de Calais region. It is also a great opportunity for the Louvre.

This innovative project is an opportunity for the Louvre to rethink both its role and its collections-an opportunity to experiment with options that cannot be tested within the structure and organization of the Parisian palace, and to test its social and educational role in a new environment.

The collections will therefore be presented in temporary, cross-disciplinary exhibitions uniting artworks that are displayed according to department, school, and technique in the Paris museum.

The new museum will also be fully on view. Its storerooms will be visible and visitable, museum professions will be demonstrated, and visitors will gain insight into the "secret life" of the artworks.

In short, the Louvre-Lens will be a museum of the 21st century, a versatile and many-faceted museum with a social, artistic, and educational role.

A tool for art appreciation and education

Art appreciation and education will be a priority for the Louvre-Lens. The museum project will focus on the education of perception and the apprehension of art, taking into account the expectations of today's visitors, many of whom are totally unfamiliar with museum practices.

Hence the significance of the education program that has been developed since the outset of the Louvre-Lens project, using various means (identifying labels, information panels, interactive terminals, screenings, etc.). The new information and communication technologies will be widely used to present the works.

A museum to which visitors will return time and time again

The Louvre-Lens will endeavor to fit into the local context - there could be nothing worse than a facility from which the people of Lens and its region would feel excluded. This is why it is hoped that the Louvre-Lens will not only attract visitors, but keep them coming back.

The prime visitors to the Louvre-Lens will be the people who live in the mining basin. A strategy is currently underway to integrate the museum into the local fabric and encourage the inhabitants to make it their own. Another key policy of the future museum will be its provision for school groups.

A cultural pole in the service of its region

The Nord-Pas de Calais region abounds in often renowned cultural facilities and museums which form a densely structured regional network. The Louvre-Lens will work in close collaboration with these establishments - the momentum created by the new museum must be of benefit to the whole community.