“Excuse me,” demanded a tourist armed with an open Louvre map and a huge camera, “where is the art?” I had been standing with my nose in an intricately sculpted wooden frame that was, in fact, empty. Indeed, all the frames surrounding us in the gallery were missing their paintings, their raisons d’être. The resulting room was quite eerie at first [...]
Read More"Niobides suppliantes". "Niobides en fuite". As I made my way through the Louvre one evening, it felt like every artwork that intrigued me was some version of a Niobid. I would be pulled to one Ancient Greek statuette, and then another, and each time the label would say “Niobid”. But what [...]
Read MoreHere is a round-up of exhibitions in Paris starting in May/June 2015. Check out my Cultural Calendar page to see a large selection of exhibitions currently on! I am so excited about the exhibition on contemporary stained glass windows at the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine. The Musée Cognacq-Jay's exhibition on 'exotic' 18th century [ ... ]
Read MoreOne of my favorite springtime rituals is heading to the mairie of the 6th arrondissement for the annual Salon d’art floral. This weekend exhibition of floral art features the creations of gardeners from the Jardin du Luxembourg and neighborhood florists, who sculpt blossoms and greenery into fantastical forms. The event is held a grand [ ... ]
Read MoreThere are a lot of exciting offers opening this month. The Fondation Louis Vuitton is presenting an overview of modern art with exciting loans from top international museums, the Musée du Luxembourg is showing portraits of the Tudors, and the Louvre offers an exhibition looking at Poussin and his religious paintings. I'm also excited [ ... ]
Read MoreThis video is what happens when one listens to "#SELFIE" by the Chainsmokers on the walk home from a visit to the Louvre:
Read MoreHere is a round-up of exhibitions in Paris starting in January/February 2015. I'm particularly excited about visiting the playful buttons exhibition at Les Arts Décoratifs. And with all of the events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps by the Allies this year, the exhibition of films made by the Soviets of [ ... ]
Read MoreThe current exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg focuses on a 19th century art dealer (Paul Durand-Ruel) who played a major role in supporting Impressionist artists. I was not expecting this to be such a colorful and diverse exhibition, and I was pleasantly surprised. The exhibition, which features some unbelievable [ ... ]
Read MoreI walked out of the Louvre one night, and all of a sudden I was audience to a magnificent sunset over the Pyramid. I had been in a hurry to get home, but the glorious moment forced me to take a breath and be still. The Pyramid is currently the site of a neon installation by the artist Claude Lévêque. The dramatic [ ... ]
Read MoreThis is part of Louvre Photo Safaris, a series that focuses on details found in Louvre artworks around various themes, with the aim of looking at everything differently. The Louvre recently reopened a refurbished decorative arts section called "From Louis XIV to Louis XVI". After having heard rave reviews since [ ... ]
Read MoreI had a dream last night where Fleur Pellerin, France’s new Minister of Culture and Communication, told me to make audio content for museums during my free time (I think my thesis has not entirely left my system yet). This got me thinking. I firmly believe that there is more than one way to appreciate museums, and how cool [ ... ]
Read More(As I finish up my thesis this month, this blog will be temporarily transformed into Garlands in Florence with posts about summer in Italy) We were going to San Gimignano for the day. We were right by the train station in Florence, and this clueless young couple, obviously in town just for the day, came up to us, and [ ... ]
Read More(As I finish up my thesis this month, this blog will be temporarily transformed into Garlands in Florence with posts about summer in Italy) As August 15 is Ferragosto, a holiday in Italy, I was worried that everything would be closed . But then I read that the Palio race was going to take place tomorrow in Siena [ ... ]
Read More(As I finish up my thesis this month, this blog will be temporarily transformed into Garlands in Florence with posts about summer in Italy) Inspired by reading Under the Tuscan Sun, I decided to spend a weekend by myself in Cortona, a hilltop Tuscan town. I would wander little streets, reflect on life [ ... ]
Read MoreThe Musée Delacroix is currently putting on an itsy-bitsy exhibition about how the artist was inspired by Shakespeare. The title, Eugène Delacroix, the most legitimate of Shakespeare’s sons, is a tad ambitious for an exhibition basically composed of about twenty lithographs. But this is Paris, so let there be grandeur [ ... ]
Read MoreHave you ever walked into a period room with tacky 'candlelight' lightbulbs in the chandeliers and wondered, "What would this have been like with real candles? Château Vaux le Vicomte has the answer. This (relatively) modest château outside of Paris offers candlelit evenings every Saturday in the summer [ ... ]
Read MoreI am in the midst of finishing a 150 page thesis (in French) about mobile apps in temporary exhibitions in Parisian museums. It is eating me alive. Needless to say, stress is a constant presence in my life right now. I've been fighting back with an arsenal of calming techniques, including candlelight, [ ... ]
Read MoreAfter spending a nocturne at the Louvre one Friday night, I stepped outside to find a lusciously full moon. I am a firm believer that a full moon brings out wildness and inhibition, and this night was no exception. I felt full of an almost manic energy in the moonlight [ ... ]
Read MoreToulouse is known as la ville rose due to the pink bricks used to construct many of its buildings. The Musée des Augustins is no exception. Built in 1309 as a Augustinian convent, today the building houses a collection of paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The galleries [ … ]
Read MoreIf Paris had its own version of The New Yorker magazine, what would the covers look like? This was the question that inspired a project where 100 artists made covers for an imaginary magazine called The Parisianer. Fifty of these illustrations are currently on display in the bite-sized exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville. [ … ]
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This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
IMAGINIBUS is a blog about playing in museums, with a focus on imagination and creativity.
This blog is a place to be inspired to use your imagination around artworks—and to see the art of your daily life.
When we engage creatively with art, museums can become playgrounds and laboratories to experiment with attention, mindfulness, and imagination. Interesting things happen when we use that museum gaze to look at our daily lives like a work of art.
Find more inspiration for playing with new ways of paying attention to your daily life here.
Hello! I'm Marina Gross-Hoy, a writer, Museum Studies PhD candidate, and mother currently living in Quebec. I take playing in museums very seriously.
Read more about the blog here.
Check out my newsletter on Substack to be inspired to see the art in your daily life.
