This text is part of the special Museums section
For five years now, the Musée de la civilization in Quebec City has presented Observe. The exhibition that confuses!, an interactive labyrinthine course that appeals to the senses of young visitors, and which is still very popular with children.
The Musée de la civilization de Québec (MCQ) has always been keen to integrate interactivity into its offer, “more than in a traditional museum”, assures Agnès Dufour, press relations officer for the 30-year-old institution of the Old Capital. . Already in 1988, when the MCQ opened its doors to the public, an interactive exhibition was offered that immersed visitors in the daily life of a blind person.
Thirty-one years later, this same principle is still valid at the MCQ, “a thematic museum, where one can touch and go beyond contemplation”, illustrates Mr.me From the oven.
In Observe. The exhibition that confuses!, several rooms follow one another in which touch, hearing and even smell are used to encourage the youngest to examine their daily behavior under a magnifying glass. The goal: to help them better understand the role of the brain in interpreting what their senses perceive.
Optical effects, trompe-l’oeil, dizziness and groping movements guided by sound in a dark room are all challenges offered to young people aged 7 to 15, in a playful link between learning and entertainment. A “typical product” of what is done at the MCQ, details Agnès Dufour.
” The bewildering exhibition, it cannot be replaced by a virtual experience. It is not an exhibition of documentation, where we contemplate objects and their history. This is the opportunity to give children a dynamic experience. “
And it works. According to figures from the MCQ, nearly a quarter of visitors (23%) come to visit the Musée de la civilization with their family. The region’s schools are also present: between 2019 and 2020, i.e. before the first confinement, more than 10,000 children from nearly 350 school groups were welcomed for activities led at the MCQ.
In touch with knowledge
While young students had to home school during confinement, pandemic obliges, the visits of school groups multiply this fall to the MCQ, which has been able to adapt its exhibitions in compliance with health standards. Museography, graphic design, audiovisual services and tactile technologies: all of the museum’s internal teams have worked together to review the route to make it safe, without altering its interactive appeal.
“Teachers like this type of interactive exhibition,” says Agnès Dufour. It complements the learning in the classroom, and it opens up a whole host of alternative teaching possibilities. The atmosphere of the rooms, the sensations experienced by the students and the lighting of the rooms, everything is thought out to improve the experience and interest the child, to encourage him to question himself. “
Since the full reopening of the museum last May, Agnès Dufour has also felt a craze for visits. Since the start of the school year, many classes have taken a school trip to the MCQ. And if health measures can have a “rigid” side that is difficult to reconcile with children’s desire to move, the Musée de la civilization has a bright and open hall, ideal for welcoming curious young people.
“When we fell into confinement, we offered several of our museum content online,” recalls Agnès Dufour. Our guides offered virtual tours, and we played recordings of our exhibitions that were suitable. But for young people, there is nothing that compares with a visit to the museum. Here they can feel a real contact with knowledge. “