Until March 24th 2024, the Fine Arts Museum of Caen will exhibit a collection of engravings dedicated to astronomy and astrology. This project is highlighted by the first year students of the Master’s in Heritage of the university of Caen Normandie! The second year students will also mount an exhibition about the reconstruction of the university in the Art and History Museum of Saint-Lô from March 27th. 

Enhancing an art collection in the Fine Arts Museum in Caen

From November 2023 to January 2024, students from the Master’s in Heritage worked relentlessly on the hanging of part of the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of Caen’s print room. The purpose of this mission? “We want to create a digital tool to enhance, to archive and to preserve the hanging called “Born Under Saturn” (in French “Les Enfants de Saturne“), dedicated to engravings about Renaissance astronomy and astrology“ explains Agathe Pellerin, one of the students who worked on the project.

Mission accomplished: on February 2nd, 2024, a new website was published, built together by the students and the museum. “We had to create a website from scratch,” Agathe explains, ”since we were 26 students involved, this project required a lot of teamwork. We had to discuss a lot on how to organise our group while keeping in mind our goal: offer an interactive creation to reach a young audience that isn’t always the most attune to engraving.”

To face the challenge of such a big team, students had to divide up the tasks. “We split in different workgroups, with for example a group for communication, one for web design, or even one content creation,” precises Agathe.

Discover the website created by the class (Le cabinet des Estampes)

A future exhibition from March 27th in Saint-Lô

This project also marks the end of a two-year-long work for the second year students of the Master’s in Heritage. In the Art and History Museum of Saint-Lô, in partnership with the Regional Office of Cultural Affairs, the students will inaugurate on March 27th an 44-piece exhibition in order to highlight the works of architects, artists and designers involved in the reconstruction of the University of Caen Normandie. The works of art and documents displayed were made available by the Calvados Departmental Archives, the Bourdette-Gorzkowski Gallery in Honfleur and the Vendôme Museum.

Discover the website created by the class (Le cabinet des Estampes)

An educational initiative

Florence Buttay, modern history professor and co-director of the Master’s in Heritage is behind these two projects. Both have taken place as part of a new teaching off of setting up exhibitions and cultural events. “Our goal was to be independent in order to learn to manage a group project. This allowed us to dive into a setting similar to our future professional environment” explains Agathe. “Thanks to this project, we worked toward a shared goal, and learned how to be organised and to manage a project with skills specific to our future careers. Our master’s degree is based both on research and on the development of professional skills. Exactly what we need to get readyfor our future work life.”