For introducing children to the arts (Paris)

Set up in 1975, the Musée en herbe is rooted in the idea that children can develop their sensitivity and curiosity by being brought into contact in a suitably fun-oriented manner with great works of art.  Any number of techniques can help : observation games,  playing with materials,  role-play based on a painting,  an activities-trail around an exhibition.  The centre’s two founders Sylvie Girardet and Claire Merleau-Ponty have also co-authored a number of books on the same theme.  They were inspired by the self-evident notion that children are separate and complete individuals,  with whom dialogue is both possible and necessary.  The original Musée en herbe is situated in the Jardin d’acclimatation in western Paris. In April 2008 two other centres were set up  at Bellinzona in Italian-speaking Switzerland and at Ceuti in southern Spain.  At the same time a new museum was  opened in the rue Hérold behind the Place des Victoires in the first arrondissement of Paris.  Here the 600 square-metre premises include ‘baby’ workshops, a shop, a gallery for aspiring youngsters, and a space for temporary exhibitions.  The first of these is dedicated to Pieter Bruegel and especially to his famous picture Children’s Games.  Dressed in mediaeval costumes and with real-life games close-at-hand,  visitors are able to identify with the 200 children who feature in the painting and the 80 different games they are playing.  Other exhibitions have centred on the works of Nikki de Saint-Phalle, Picasso and Andy Warhol.   Entrance fees are six euros for a ‘baby’ tour, ten euros for a guided tour, and ten euros for a workshop.  Some 70,000 people visit the museum every year.