Museums Archives - Com Namibia

Do Museums Have a Future, and Which One Will It Be? [ABO]

July 3, 2026 by Amara Nambinga

Les grands musées sont devenus en deux décennies les vitrines culturelles de destinations qui en étaient privées - DepositPhotos.com, quadrio

CroisiEurope

The Louvre’s recent missteps, brought to the attention of media around the world, bring back to the table the importance of these private, public, national, and municipal institutions that give a destination its fame and the delights of a broad audience comprised of tourists as well as local visitors.

An importance all the more evident since some institutions, like the largest museum that claims to be the Louvre, can falter.

Lootings raise questions about security. Strikes, the discomfort of indispensable staff who are often undertrained and underpaid, tarnish the image of the museum institution.

As for the abundance of crowds too often poorly managed, and the admission fees that can be prohibitively high, they constitute other problems common to the “stars” of the profession.

Thirty-two euros now for non-European visitors is a lot. Way too much! No discounts for seniors, which is unacceptable when our British neighbors or farther afield, in Brazil, offer seniors free admission!

And what about those over 26? They pay full price! Expensive, too expensive!

Audiences: Key Figures

– 56% of French people visited a museum, an exhibition, or a heritage site in 2024 (versus 51% in 2023) ;

– One in five French people took part in at least one free museum or heritage event in 2024, such as the European Heritage Days, the European Night of Museums, or Nuit Blanche;

– 65% of museum or heritage site visitors believe that Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be a valuable complement to traditional devices (labels, audio guides, screens, apps, etc.);

– the appeal of paid immersive experiences is confirmed: 14% of visitors say they have visited an exhibition with a paid immersive route at least once in their life (+5 points compared to the previous survey).

Sources: 2025 Museum and Heritage Audiences Barometer, conducted by Test and the Gece Institute.

The Bilbao Effect: The Tourism Showpiece

Nevertheless, highly visible and prominent in promotional campaigns, the great museums have become in two decades the cultural showcases of destinations that were previously deprived, and they continue to lure not only the public but also elected officials who aspire to turn their cities into a tourist capital.

Whether we like it or not, the formidable silhouette of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao designed by architect Frank Gehry has become so iconic that it sparked a architectural race with new entrants such as the Confluences in Lyon, the MUCEM in Marseille, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the National Museum of Qatar in Doha by Jean Nouvel, and many others across Saudi Arabia, the USA, and China.

Having become a destination in its own right whose success remains undiminished, the museum has entered both tourist and local practices. Thus, about sixty national museums in France recorded 12 million visitors, a historic record.

The Louvre alone turns around 9 million entries. The museums of the city of Paris also progressed, drawing more than 5 million visitors.

These performances are likely to be surpassed thanks to more dynamic and effective strategies unveiled at the latest Museum Connections, featuring debates, roundtables, and various presentations. Too numerous to list, we will highlight a few.

The Museum for Everyone: A Living Space and Cultural Hub

The focus on accessibility for people with disabilities, a cornerstone for museums for decades, is the visible part of the progress made toward diverse audiences, and that is all to the good.

Moreover, the museum, once perceived as standoffish and closed to more popular crowds, has become a kind of lively place and cultural center for a city or a district.

Through animations, performances, creative workshops, conferences, trips, organized tours… the museum becomes even more attractive by offering an unmissable shop, well stocked with books, magazines, many of which are children’s titles. A smart way to foster loyalty.

As for cafés, tea rooms, and restaurants, they have made enough efforts to become genuine meeting spaces. Their design, menus, and even pricing make them competitive additions.

Museums and Health: A New Role with High Expectations

Spotlight on Museum Connections 2026

Claire de Longeaux, director of Museum Connections, is pleased.

For its thirtieth edition, the excellent fair, which took place on January 13 and 14, 2026, at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, progressed notably in the number of exhibitors — 404, of which 40% were international, including Chinese and American participants.

On the visitor side, the tally reached around 6,000 attendees, with 20% foreign participants. It must be said that the success is all the more deserved as the show asks the right questions at the right moments and provides relevant answers to professionals who have been a bit unsettled by ongoing innovations.

« It was a very friendly show, says the director, which facilitated exchanging experiences, especially in terms of welcoming audiences.

Public managers were numerous and eager to share with their peers ideas, strategies, and effective methods. The roundtables and debates were lively and engaging.

Unlike Sitem (International Museum Exhibition, ndlr), which is very oriented toward museum equipment, our show focuses on the visitor experience. Before, during, and after…”

The next edition is planned for January 12 and 13, 2027.

Journalist, consultant, lectrice, Josette Sicsic has been observing the shifts in the world for over 25 years to analyze their consequences for the tourism sector.

After developing Touriscopie for more than 20 years, she remains at the forefront of current affairs, decoding the present to forecast the future. On the site www.tourmag.com, in the Futuroscopie section, she publishes several times a week foresight and analytical articles.

Contact: 06 14 47 99 04

Email: [email protected]

Museums and Health: The Rise of Museotherapy [ABO]

July 2, 2026 by Amara Nambinga

Lorsqu’une personne observe une œuvre, des zones cérébrales associées au plaisir et à la relaxation sont activées - DepositPhotos.com, anyaberkut

CroisiEurope

Tout le monde a entendu parler du syndrome de Stendhal ?

Celui éprouvé par le célèbre écrivain en visitant la basilique Santa Croce à Florence au cours de laquelle il est passé par un état à mi-chemin entre l’extase esthétique et une transe mystique, au contact des artistes qui en ont signé les splendeurs.

Consacrant la magie dont est capable une œuvre d’art sur nos émotions, ce syndrome qui s’est manifesté chez l’écrivain par toutes sortes de sensations physiques, ne constitue pas qu’une légende.

Le contact avec de beaux paysages, des monuments, des œuvres d’art qu’elles soient musicales ou graphiques, naturelles ou artificielles est indéniablement à la base d’un sentiment de bien-être dont nous avons tous besoin.

D’où la prolifération d’offres culturelles dans les programmes des voyagistes et la forte demande exprimée par bon nombre de touristes de tous âges pour des visites de sites et monuments exposant toutes sortes d’œuvres antiques ou contemporaines témoignant d’une part du génie humain et de l’histoire d’un pays, mais capables, d’autre part, de sublimer le mental de chacun d’entre nous.

Museums and Museotherapy

In the forefront of these places that foster encounters with “the beautiful,” museums are no longer content with simply engaging the public; they now pair the experience with a palette of wellbeing practices capable of multiplying positive sensations in our brain and body.

This is how one can conduct a yoga session or attend a concert or take a simple stroll and feel real benefits.

Where? In any museum, or in those that offer museotherapy workshops such as the Fine Arts Museum in Lille.

Montreal: A Museum on Prescription

C’est cependant historiquement parlant, l’Association des médecins francophones du Canada, en collaboration avec le Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, qui a mis sur pied un projet original qui a permis à des milliers de patients de bénéficier d’une visite au musée, octroyée sur ordonnance, en complément de leurs traitements conventionnels.

Après des expérimentations dans les années 1990-2000, notamment via le programme Meet Me du MoMA destiné aux patients atteints d’Alzheimer, l’initiative canadienne fait de la « muséothérapie » une pratique à part entière, où le musée se transforme en un lieu de soin et de mieux-être.

Dès 2016, Nathalie Bondil, alors directrice du musée et considérée comme une pionnière sur la question, défendait l’idée « qu’au XXIe siècle, la culture sera pour la santé ce que le sport a été au XXe siècle : l’expérience culturelle contribuera au mieux-être, comme la pratique du sport à notre forme physique ».

Bondil, aujourd’hui directrice du musée et des expositions de l’Institut du monde arabe à Paris, enseigne la muséothérapie à l’École du Louvre.

Bruxelles, pour sa part, a été la première ville à lancer des prescriptions muséales en 2022. Sur le même modèle.

Montpellier a suivi et vu naitre le projet Art sur ordonnance. A Paris, le projet Bulle d’Art a réuni Paris Musées et le fonds d’art contemporain pour proposer des méditations guidées devant des œuvre d’art.

Au Louvre-Lens, on expérimente un espace de thérapie comme au Hamo au Palais de Tokyo à Paris… Sans compter les séances de musicothérapie qui, pour leur part, sont plus nombreuses et anciennes.

Lire aussi : « La petite histoire » : un avatar du tourisme de mémoire pour aller mieux

Scientific Evidence

Mais, est-on bien sûr de l’intérêt de cette thérapie ? Eh bien, oui.

Grâce à une étude de l’University College de Londres menée sur un échantillon de 6 000 personnes pendant 12 ans, on a constaté que le taux de mortalité est plus faible chez les personnes qui ont pu fréquenter régulièrement un musée que chez les autres.

Au Japon, un muséologue Izumi Ogata a continué l’expérimentation de 2020 à 2024 avec son projet de bain muséal « Haku/Butsu/Kan/Yoku » en japonais, sur un échantillon de 1 300 personnes. Conclusion : une baisse généralisée de l’anxiété et un ajustement de la pression artérielle.

Plus probant encore, un rapport de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) s’est employé à explorer les effets bénéfiques de l’art sur la santé.

Après avoir analysé plus de 900 études internationales, le Bureau régional pour l’Europe de l’institution est catégorique : il confirme la façon dont différentes formes d’arts – littérature, culture, arts de la scène, arts visuels, arts en ligne – peuvent promouvoir la santé.

Du diabète à l’obésité, du stade gestatif à la fin de vie, de la petite enfance jusqu’aux personnes âgées, les arts font bel et bien montre de leurs effets positifs : améliorer le sommeil des enfants avec des histoires au coucher, la prise de décisions des adolescents avec une formation théâtrale, les fonctions cognitives chez les personnes atteintes de démence grâce à la musique, les fonctions motrices chez les patients atteints de Parkinson grâce à la danse…

Bref, les exemples de cette étude parue en 2019 sont légion. Mais, comme le précise Christopher Bailey, responsable des arts et de la santé à l’OMS, « Les arts n’ont pas pour but de guérir – ils ne guérissent pas le cancer. Mais les arts peuvent soigner. »

Lire aussi : Colère, exaspération, dépression : le temps du bien-être actif revient

Visiting Museums Every Week Could Slow Human Aging, Science Says

June 14, 2026 by Amara Nambinga

What if visit prescriptions were about to become standard practice? For a year now, Yvelines has been testing a scheme that allows caregivers to offer patients a free museum visit. A model already adopted in Canada for several years.

And for good reason, in 2019 the WHO confirmed in a report that art has positive effects on mental and physical health. While several research studies have corroborated this report, a new British study suggests that art could influence biomarkers of aging.

This study conducted by scientists at University College London (UCL) and published Monday, May 11, 2026 in the journal Innovation in Aging asserts that a weekly artistic or cultural activity could slow the pace of aging, and as much as a weekly physical activity.

“Our study provides the first evidence that engaging in an artistic or cultural activity is linked to a slowing of biological aging”, declares Feifei Bu, an epidemiologist at UCL and senior author of the study, as reported by Science Alert.

A study conducted on 3,500 people

To reach their conclusions, the researchers analyzed health data from more than 3,500 adults in the United Kingdom, while measuring how often they participated in artistic or cultural activities. The scientists included visits to a museum or library, attending an art exhibition, crafts, singing or painting.

They then used epigenetic clocks (a biochemical test that measures the accumulation of methyl groups on DNA), thereby measuring the biological age of these individuals. In general, study participants who practiced at least once a week one of the activities mentioned above showed less pronounced signs of aging than those with a less varied cultural life.

According to the PhenoAge clock, their biological ages were on average one year younger than those who did not engage in artistic activities. The DunedinPACE clock, which measures the pace of aging, indicates a 4% slowdown for weekly practice.

Is art as effective as exercise for health?

Their findings indicate that artistic activities reduce stress, inflammation and improve cardiovascular disease risk, i.e., benefits similar to those of physical activity.

“These results prove that engaging in artistic and cultural practice should be recognized as a health-beneficial behavior, on par with physical exercise,” says Daisy Fancourt, an epidemiologist and lead author of the study, who has been studying the health benefits of art at UCL for nearly ten years.