To celebrate 100 years of Musée Basque et de l’histoire de Bayonne – The Basque Museum of Bayonnea mission was entrusted to 11 classes from all over the Basque Country, from kindergarten to higher education : create an object that would complement and update the museum’s collections, by combining an imposed theme with the ‘students’ present tense’ (e.g.: the house, agriculture, the river, dance, etc.).
On June 22, the exhibition was opened in the presence of the students. Each class, through 2 or 3 ambassador-mediators, presented its object to the public, during a walking tour. These objects will be left in the collections until this fall. The public will therefore be able to discover the museum, enriched with proposals from schools and establishments.
During the visit, led by the students themselves, the public was particularly moved when the allophone children of the UPE2A system in Anglet, with their families, read in their mother tongue – in Arabic, Belarusian, Russian, Japanese and English – the poem they had written together in French.
Che suspended moment was powerfully symbolic, and exemplary of the importance of culture…
Congratulations to the students and teachers of the establishments from Anglet (UPE2A Galois and Herriot schools, Cantau high school), Bayonne (Grand Bayonne school, Jean Moulin school, Paul Bert high school), Biarritz (Malraux high school), Bidache (public school), Chéraute (public school), Hendaye (City school), Mouguerre (Port school).
This opening was the culmination of a year of work:
- between January and April: visit the museum, to (re)discover it, learn about its functions and nature, but above all visit it through the theme/prism that has been assigned to each class (the house, textiles, pelota, dance, agriculture, portraiture, the Adour…).
- between April and June: in class, think about what is missing in the museum’s collections, and what students would like to add so that their theme is updated through their contemporary perspective. So create an ‘object’ that would meet this mission.
- early June: delivery of the object, with its label, to the Basque Museum
- June: the museum installs and exhibits these objects, at the heart of the permanent collection.
- June 22: opening of the thus “enriched” exhibition.
Thank you to the Basque Museum for this great experience and this opportunity given to the children! And happy birthday to the Museum!
