“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 MoreI've been in Montreal for only four months, but my life in Paris already feels like another lifetime. I recently traveled to New York City (to visit the lovely Sara, another 'Expat American-Expat-in-Paris'), which obviously meant dedicating a significant amount of time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art [...]
Read MoreThis is an installment of Creative July on the theme of Love (f you missed it, check out a description of the project here!) One of the most beautiful expressions of love is touch. So, I went on a photo safari in the Louvre's Ancient Egypt galleries, on the hunt for touch. A photo safari is a visit to a museum focusing on details found [...]
Read MoreThe Cour Marly in the Musée du Louvre is grand. Filled with natural light and a forest of ficus trees, the courtyard houses an army of grand marble statuary. These stone figures display movement despite their insistent stillness, with rearing horses, racing gods and goddesses, harmonious allegories of rivers and [...]
Read MoreAlthough I was unclear about what Swabian Sculptures (sculptures souabes) from the Late Middle Ages actually were, I was still very excited to visit the current exhibition at the Musée du Cluny because the poster looked epic. Swabia, it turns out, is an historic region in southwestern Germany between the Black Forest, Lake Constance, and the [ ... ]
Read MoreOne of the best rooms in the Musée de Cluny (the museum of the Middle Ages) is the Salle Notre-Dame de Paris. And the most intriguing part? The series of floating kings' heads from the façade of Notre-Dame. The story behind how they got into this room is fascinating. It was the French Revolution, and the people were disgusted by the [ ... ]
Read MoreThis is part of Make a Mask, a series where I make copies of masks in Parisian museums. This Halloween, I made my first papier-mâché mask. It was such an enjoyable process; a mix of sculpture, paper work and painting. Since then, every time I visit a museum, I am drawn magnetically to any and all masks on display. Naturally, the next step was [ ... ]
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 MoreThe Niki de Saint Phalle exhibition at the Grand-Palais is a joy, a pleasure, a celebration. Before this exhibition, I only knew Saint Phalle as the artist behind the Stravinsky Fountain by the Centre Pompidou, and other such colorful creations. I was not expecting to be blown away (as I was) by the force of her artworks’ color, form [ ... ]
Read MoreI've always been intrigued by the series of statues of French queens and saints that surround the basin of the Luxembourg Garden. These women are look strong and purposeful, each unique in her pose and attitude. The statues make up the Reines de France et Femmes illustres, a series of twenty notable women from French [ ... ]
Read MoreI have made several trips lately to Rougier & Plé, stocking up on clay, felt, plaster, paint and oh so many sequins. I am processing life through arts and crafts. Now I come home from a long day at work, set the mood with John Coltrane, Andrew Bird or Devon Graves and lose myself in messy [ ... ]
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) I had to wake up early for a drawing class field trip. We went into Florence to the Boboli Gardens, the Medici’s massive formal gardens behind the Pitti Palace. They were lovely [ ... ]
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) My drawing class took its first field trip; we went to two nearby Medici villas. At the first villa, the Villa Medici di Castello, we sat out in the gardens and drew whatever we [ ... ]
Read MoreÉglise Saint-Germain-des-Prés is easily one of my favorite churches in Paris. It feels ancient; a reminder of the past in the midst of contemporary Parisian life. The structure is surrounded by two little squares, each tucked in against the church and chock-full of art. These modest parks have their own distinct character [ ... ]
Read MoreThe Louvre Abu Dhabi will open in December 2015, but you can see the museum's first acquisitions now, on display in an exhibition at the 'Louvre Paris’. In 2007, an intergovernmental agreement was signed between France and the United Arab Emirates [ ... ]
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 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. Hands reach out, they touch, they manipulate. They can be used to cradle an infant, to turn a page, to cry out to God. In the Louvre’s collection of French [ ... ]
Read MoreThis is part of Museum User Guides, a series with ideas for how to “use” museums. The activities suggested here propose a fresh way to understand and experience a particular collection. Life in Paris can be exhausting. From the agony that is a daily métro commute to the overall grumpiness of [ ... ]
Read MoreIt was Friday night and the Louvre felt like it belonged to me. I wandered through dim galleries until I came upon one of my favorite spaces in the Louvre: the Cour Marly, the enormous glass-roofed gallery filled with outdoor statuary from the park of the Château de Marly. People [ ... ]
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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.
