Mon Pellier: Exhibitions for everyone

What to do with a kid in August?

Visit art exhibitions!

Montpellier has a great fine arts museum.

Historically and esthetically coherent.

The collection of the museum has been built around the collections of some eminent local art collectors: Antoine Valedeau, François-Xavier Fabre and Alfred Bruyas. Thanks to them, the museum can present, amongst many others, works from Veronese, Bourdon, Poussin, Greuze, Zurbaran, Metsu, Rubens, David, Delacroix, Bazille, Courbet, and great hotels particuliers to host this all. I discovered the museum as a kid, and used my eyes searching silhouettes in some dark Delacroix paintings in some very dark room... the city library and archives occupied most of the building.

The architects of the modern museum did quite a good job. A lot of paintings formerly kept into the reserves found places on the walls, under a fine lightning. The museum has now enough space to host some prstigious exhibitions, and to presents many impressive works from contemporary artists, all linked to the South of France: Soulages, Bioulès... Claude Viallat.

Entrance hall by Daniel Buren

The Supports/Surfaces group or movement or school has been extremely important in the history of contemporary art in France. We have quite a litterature about it, which doesn't seem to have been much translated in foreign languages. Claude Viallat is one of its most representative members. It would have been quite a waste not to invite kids to discover his works, huge and so pleasant to the eyes. The musée Fabre fortunately grew children-friendly since its reopenning...

Every wednesday morning in Summer, a visit is organized specially for the 2-5 years old with a parent. The recurrent motive of Viallat is presented as a spot travelling during the summer vacations: it goes to the circus (on the tent), on a fishing net, on a boat, on a beach umbrella... Simple but efficient approach. Kids walk and watch, talk about what they like, answer questions about colors, have fun putting stickers on a paper fish and barbababies on an umbrella.

Other kind of experience: La Panacée, center for contemporary art...

With a third exhibition about modern communication: Une lettre arrive toujours à destinations.

The restaurant is good and provides pencils, paper, games and toys to families, the exhibition is free... and kids often knew more on the places than their parents, thanks to the schools...

The staff is very nice and helpfull.

The works question the audience, but a playfull approach is kindly tolerated.

The Center organizes events for teenagers. Though I am not yet interested in these, I was pleased to see young ones work with the street artist Sunny Jim. "So Street" was a free event on 3 days, at the Panastudio during the Panholidays... It succeeded to a "Fluxus remix".