The 23rd edition of “Mars au Musée” returns from March 9 to March 23, under the theme “Against the Current”. A cultural initiative for students, by students. But… does art still manage to attract them?
“Our objective is to revitalize museums and to promote culture as a common project”, says Clémentine Nacache, president of the MICA association, which is in charge of the festival. The 23rd edition of “Mars aux Musées”, “Against the Current”, runs from March 9 to March 23. It is a project led by students of the Master’s degree in Event Management, Mediation, and Cultural Engineering (EMIC) at the University of Côte d’Azur. During these three weeks, you can discover workshops and exhibitions in the five participating museums: the Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret, the Musée International d’Art Naïf Anatole Jakovsky, the Museum of Natural History, the Musée Masséna, and the Archaeology Museum of Nice. Patrick Mottard, deputy delegate for live performance and the development of new cultural audiences, is proud to contribute to this edition under the theme “Against the Current”, which he believes well represents the Nice slogan: “je m’en fiche, je suis niçois” (“I don’t care, I’m from Nice”).
This festival, by and for students, is a boon for the city’s museums. But more importantly, it reflects the desire of these future cultural mediators to “encourage young people,” as Clémentine explains. The EMIC students work in collaboration with the participating museums and their collections to create unique exhibitions. The idea behind the “Against the Current” theme is to break the pre-established codes of art, to innovate in order to engage and attract. “The program is modern and, on the contrary, we try to move away from the preconceived notions one might have when thinking about museums,” Clémentine adds. “2024 seems to be an exceptional year for Mars aux Musées,” Patrick Mottard concludes.
A False Decline in Art and Culture
“Students don’t go to museums much, and that’s a fact,” says the President of the association. Yet, art and culture are essential for educating creativity and imagination. “It makes one more free, more autonomous, more of a citizen, and it is indeed a human right,” adds Patrick Mottard. The city of Nice offers a rich cultural and artistic landscape, but unfortunately, it is not enough to bring young people back to museums. “I only go to a museum once a month. If there were more captivating exhibitions, it might encourage me to go more often,” notes Rémi Girardet, a student from Nice.
This is also the main challenge of Mars aux Musées, attracting students. “It’s not that young people are no longer interested in art or culture; it’s rather a lack of exhibitions that speak to us, with which we can identify,” explains Léa, a law student in Nice. And this issue is something the future communicators and mediators intend to overcome. “We want during the month of March for the student who planned to attend one event to eventually come to all the others. The idea is that in the long term, students return to museums on their own,” Clémentine enthuses. But for her, museums also need to be more attentive to the desires of young people from Nice.
(Re)discover the new exhibition at the Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre.
