An educational museum

The Louvre-Lens will be a new-style museum whose originality will largely lie in the opportunities it will afford to visitors.

The role of the museum will not be confined to the presentation of prestigious works of art and the transmission of predefined knowledge. The Louvre-Lens aims to be educational in the broadest sense, with an approach to exhibition design that will allow visitors to adopt a critical stance, express their own taste, and exchange opinions.

A visit to the Louvre-Lens will be an opportunity to develop freedom and autonomy—the very definition of education.

Young people: a priority for the Louvre-Lens

Young people—be they children, teenagers, or students, in a school or family context—are already a priority for the museum, most of all because they are a promise for the future: to educate and interest the young people of today is to pave the way for the visitors of tomorrow.

It is sometimes said of the Louvre-Lens: "This will be a museum for my kids, not for me." Yet the enthusiasm of children can arouse the curiosity of adults—even of those who have long been excluded from cultural activities.

Between now and the opening of the museum, our intention is to build a special relationship with the widest possible public, in order to prepare for the arrival of the Louvre-Lens in the lives of local people, be they children, teenagers, or adults.

A project developed in consultation with all the relevant parties

The Louvre-Lens will arrive in an area already rich in cultural experiences and activities. The regional museums' education departments run a host of projects for children and young people every year in Lille, Roubaix, Arras, and Valenciennes, and even beyond the borders—in Belgium for example.

In order to fit in with existing practices and respond to emerging local requirements, contacts have already been made between teams from the Musée du Louvre and the regional education authority. This has led to the formation of a steering committee, including members of the education authority's Cultural Action Department, education authority inspectors (in history, applied arts, etc), and representatives of the Regional Council, the Regional Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Visitor Services Department at the Musée du Louvre.

The goal is to develop a long-term strategy with an agreed working methodology, so that all those with an educational role may share a framework within which to work toward the widest possible accessibility of the Louvre-Lens.

The idea is to set up long-term policies that promote autonomy, inter-disciplinarity, and synergy in every aspect of preparation for the future museum. A visit to the Louvre-Lens or the Louvre in Paris will be part of an overall project that will associate regional museums and cultural players and implement the best practices.

Priority target audiences

Efforts will be concentrated primarily on children—the best means of reaching communities that are underprivileged in terms of cultural opportunities and facilities. Moreover, a number of support schemes are already in place in the educational priority areas in the Nord-Pas de Calais region.

Projects launched in partnership with nursery and primary schools, activity centers, open schools etc. will allow children to become familiar with the museum world from a very early age. Provisions will be made for toddlers, and future teachers will not be forgotten. Students now in teacher training colleges will soon have children in their charge, and will make an invaluable contribution to the quality and success of projects conducted with the Louvre-Lens.

Between 2007 and the opening of the Louvre-Lens: youngsters from Lens at the Louvre

At the suggestion of the Mayor of Lens, all the town's children in their last year of primary school will visit the Paris Louvre between now and the opening of the Louvre-Lens. During this period, the youngsters of Lens will learn how a museum organizes its collections, and will lay the foundations of an understanding of art and civilizations.

This ambitious project is being conducted in collaboration with the Visitor Services Department at the Louvre, local nursery and primary schools, and Lens city council.