A 21st-century society museum
An atypical site if ever there was one, the Musée de plein air des Maisons comtoises has been an innovative, inventive and sometimes even precursory museum in the cultural and museum field for many years now.
This innovative spirit has enabled the Museum to get through the difficult period that many ethnographic museums have faced at the start of the 21st century. This course is that of accompanying society as it evolves. A necessary evolution that enables a museum of society to remain in step with its contemporaries.
Far from the fixed image of a rural society that has now disappeared, the Musée des Maisons Comtoises seeks, on the contrary, to question the major issues of today's society, such as housing, food and living together. Through the use of buildings and objects, however old, the Museum questions our current lifestyles, and our understanding of the environment in which we live. How can we meet vital needs while respecting the environment and all living things, and manage our resources?
Living and inhabiting with local resources, the Museum's new credo, means understanding the soil, biodiversity and climate of a place without seeking to escape from it, but rather to live with it in harmony. It also means drawing on a region's resources, both material and intellectual. In this respect, the Musée des Maisons Comtoises must be exemplary, out of respect for the inhabitants of its houses who have applied this philosophy of life so well, but also for future generations who will have no choice but to take it up in their turn. Taking only what we need, and making the most of what already exists, these are the avenues to consider.
For all these reasons, the Musée des Maisons Comtoises worked for two years, between 2018 and 2020, to define a new Scientific and Cultural Project (SCP). A genuine roadmap for the entire museum team, the PSC questions the Museum's roles, its missions for the territory and its inhabitants, and defines all the actions to be carried out between now and 2027 for the site's collections and audiences.
What role will the museum play in the future?
- A gateway to understanding and discovering the Franche-Comté region, its architecture, its people, its environment, its know-how...
- A place of resources for rediscovering a taste for doing things yourself
- A place for reconnecting with nature, for rediscovering sensory contact with nature
- A place for experimentation: experimenting with and discovering emerging practices or those little known to the general public in the fields of agriculture and architecture (permaculture, biodynamics, eco-construction, building with local resources, etc.).)
- Place for debate: address social issues with a multi-disciplinary approach (scientific, artistic)
- Collaborative place: for residents, associations, craftspeople, artists, market gardeners, etc.
- Place for collecting and presenting the rural heritage of the Franche-Comté region from 1750 to the present day
- Place for promoting local know-how from the past to the present (crafts, agriculture, architecture)
Project highlights
Taking into account three of the main components of our environment - the physical environment, biodiversity and people - the museum's scientific project is based on the principle of living and inhabiting with local resources, and is divided into three areas:
1- Housing
2- Food
3- Living together
These three areas are nothing less than the expression of vital needs that every human being seeks to satisfy. The project will address these three notions, through the permanent tour, both historically, as has been the case to date, and of course locally, i.e. on the scale of the Franche-Comté region. However, it is also necessary to be open to emerging practices and other geographical areas. This can be achieved through the temporary exhibition program, events, workshops and symposia.
