The city of Barentin (Seine-Maritime) is, with Saint-Dizier (52) and Maubeuge (59), the third pilot site in France for the deployment of MUSE, a new digital device for access to major works carried by the National Museums and Grand Palais Network (RMN GP).

The MUSE device

MUSE is a digital tool for accessing museum content with editorial content and an accepted educational intent with the objective of:

  • Make the digital sector a focus for the development of the institution, notably through the production of digital exhibitions and promote their roaming throughout the country;
  • Develop an ambitious EAC policy, attentive to the priority audiences, in a reinforced action with all actors including local authorities;
  • Develop own resources.

It combines 2 modules:

  • MUSE-Immersif: digital exhibition, installed in a dedicated space, offering immersive projection and touch screens, possibly the presentation of original works in very small numbers.

This event offer is intended to be renewed twice a year. For the moment, the adaptations of Pompeii (Grand-Palais 2020) from Mysteries of the Mona Lisa (Marseille, Palais de la Bourse, 2022) and Venice revealed (Grand-Palais 2022).

  • MUSE-Découverte: a permanent introduction to the history of art, composed of 18 luminous diptychs, one of which bears an HD photo reproduction (or a cast), the other a comment in FALC mode proposing a playful and educational approach that opens on comparisons and a contemporary perspective. 2 works of the route are related to the region.

A 10-minute film, inviting visitors to discover local heritage works, completes the programme.

In practice, the RMN-GP allows each recipient to choose 16 works, in a current panel of 30 major works held in the national collections (including the Bayeux tapestry), to which are added two others echoing the region. The catalogue is intended to develop.

 

Teaching tools are also available for teachers in the form of folders for each work, or play-books for children who are not readers;

  • A space of activity or conviviality is added.

The aim of the project is to create a vast network of national territory based on the programmes for the revitalization of urban centres (Action Cœur de Ville and Small town of tomorrow) and campaigns (Rural plan).

 

Barentin MUSE: a promise of interaction with local heritage

Among the pilot sites hosting MUSE is the city of Barentin. Barentin has the chance to benefit from a museum of figurative sculptures (20th century) scattered in the urban landscape and is currently developing an ambitious cultural project around the industrial wasteland Badin. This support will help support the city’s cultural projects.

The inauguration took place on October 11, 2022, in the Siegfried space, a municipal exhibition hall in downtown Barentin.

Christophe Bouillon, Mayor of Barentin, inauguration MUSE ©DRAC Normandie

In the long term (target date: 2025), MUSE must be implemented in its full configuration (Discovery + Immersive) as part of the Badin brownfield rehabilitation project.

Friche Barentin ©InventaireRégionNormandie

The Badin Sartel mill in Barentin was founded in 1838. It quickly became the property of Auguste Badin (entered as a simple apprentice a few years earlier).

The latter will diversify production (cotton, linen, jute). The factory grows and attracts many workers. Soon, a school was built, a crèche, an orphanage, organizations for mutual aid, retirement and leisure. In 1897 a working-class city... The company then employs more than 2000 employees.

Despite good prosperity until the 1950s, the company went bankrupt in the early 1980s and will only survive. The plant was acquired and relocated in 2008.

The 1re The rehabilitation phase of the site focuses on the park, it is in its infancy. The industrial buildings preserved must accommodate after rehabilitation several spaces with cultural vocation: besides MUSE, a Micromadness, which will soon open in a waiting area, an interpretation centre on the Badin city, a chocolate museum, a cinema, etc.

This device is a powerful tool to complement cultural actions and arts education projects led by the city and supported by the DRAC of Normandy. The new cultural facilities (MUSE and Microfolie) will find their place in quality arts and cultural education actions.