The national museums of the Alpes-Maritimes reveal their programming for the 2026-2027 cultural season

After a slight decline in attendance in 2025-2026, the national museums unveiled, at the beginning of October, the major events of the 2026-2027 season. A rich programming in events that addresses all audiences.

Leading players in the artistic landscape of the Alpes-Maritimes, the national museums Marc Chagall (Nice), Fernand Léger (Biot) and Pablo Picasso – War and Peace (Vallauris) unveiled their programming for the coming year.

Despite a contrasting 2025-2026 season, with a slight drop in attendance recorded compared to the previous season, the managers of the national museums in Nice, Biot and Vallauris say they are satisfied with the overall balance of the year. Each is ready to do everything possible to continue to shine next year.

So between masterpieces of the twentieth century and contemporary creation, the 2026-2027 season looks interesting. On the program, exhibitions, concerts, shows, lectures and circus arts. This season will be marked by multidisciplinarity and accessibility for all audiences.

The program of the Marc Chagall Museum in Nice

Chagall – Malraux: an artistic friendship from June 12 to September 20, 2027

This is undoubtedly the major artistic highlight of next season. In the summer of 2027, the Marc Chagall Museum will present an exhibition to pay tribute to the special bond that united Marc Chagall and André Malraux.

At the time Minister of Culture, André Malraux greatly contributed to the project of creating the Marc Chagall National Museum. The two men held mutual admiration for each other, and this exhibition will trace the rare complicity between them, as well as their shared vision of art.

For Grégory Couderc, scientific director and heritage curator at the Marc Chagall Museum, this artistic project will be one of the highlights of next season: “this exhibition is part of the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of André Malraux’s death, who passed away on November 23, 1976. The objective is to trace, through works, the strong relationship that united these two men, and how much this friendship contributed to Nice’s artistic heritage.”

Malgorzata Mirga-Tas: from October 9, 2027 to January 17, 2028

The second major highlight of the Marc Chagall Museum next year, contemporary Polish artist Malgorzata Mirga-Tas will present an exhibition that explores Romani history and culture.

Known for her works made with fabric assemblies, she likes to use colors and patterns to trace moments of everyday life, and bring her scenes to life. Her taste for bright colors, Malgorzata Mirga-Tas shares with Marc Chagall, an echo that makes sense for her exhibition in late 2027.

Throughout the year, cultural events such as concerts, dance performances, history and philosophy lectures around art are available free of charge at the Marc Chagall Museum. If you wish to register, visit the website: https://musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr/chagall/

The programs of the Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso Museums

François Morellet – Fernand Léger: defacing painting from November 21, 2026 to April 26, 2027

In the Fernand Léger National Museum in Biot, the 2026-2027 season will be one of celebrations. Next month, an exhibition in tribute to François Morellet, born 100 years ago and who died 10 years ago, will be installed in Biot.

Unlike Malraux and Chagall who knew each other very well, François Morellet and Fernand Léger did not know each other. If they are connected through this exhibition, it is because the two men have much in common: “they both have a great spirit of derision, a taste for caricature that is felt in their works. They defended the same values, that is to say that art must be accessible to everyone, desacralized”, stated Julie Guttierez, chief curator at the Fernand Léger Museum in Biot.

William Klein – Fernand Léger: same battles from June 2027 to November 2027

Another tribute exhibition will succeed that of François Morellet in June 2027 in Biot, that around William Klein, who died in 2022 and was born 100 years ago. Again, the two men share common traits that make it possible to connect their works.

A great photography enthusiast, William Klein was one of the first to photograph the street, particularly in the United States. He found himself in the studios of Fernand Léger in the 1950s, and the two men collaborated. Both artists used art as a means to denounce the living conditions of the time, and invested themselves through their works in political life.

Rediscover War and Peace: innovative mediation – Screening of three short films starting December 2, 2026

At the Pablo Picasso Museum in Vallauris, a screening of three short films related to Pablo Picasso’s work: War and Peace, will be inaugurated. Available in early December, these three videos will allow us to trace the genesis of this work as well as its contemporary responses.

Pablo Picasso’s pictorial work, which presents two painted panels several dozen meters long, is at the heart of the Vallauris Museum. Recently, it has been possible to visit it online via a 3D virtual tour. The objective of this move is to “provide access to art for more disadvantaged audiences, particularly in the prison environment”, specifies Gaïdig Lemarié, project manager for this virtual tour.

For more information regarding the programming of the national museums, visit: https://musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr/fr