10 years of the Louvre-Lens museum: culture all across France

All audiences

Opened in December 2012, the Louvre-Lens museum just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Since its inauguration more than 5 million visitors have come through the doors of the museum, which takes a unique approach to decentralization. The Louvre-Lens presents itself not as an “antenna of the Louvre”, but as a “different Louvre”, better adapted to the region and their different publics. According to its designers, it is the culmination of a reflection on a different way of discovering the Louvre and making the national collections more accessible.

After the creation in the “distant territories” of the Louvre Abu-Dhabi in 2007, the Louvre Museum, a major French cultural institution, wanted to reach out to its regional audiences by creating another major national museum. The city of Lens was chosen in 2009 from among six candidate cities because it was an ideal site for at least two reasons. A witness to the epic of the mining industry, Lens was “one of the pioneers and one of the pillars of the French industrial revolution”. It is also located on two major strategic axes: at the crossroads of the large neighboring towns of Lille and Arras but also, on another scale, “at the crossroads of Europe, at the heart of a Euroregion where cultural power is a key asset”.

Two anniversary events and a symbolic date

In early December 2022 the people of the region, many of whom took part in the festive weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Louvre-Lens, actually celebrated two anniversaries since this year also marks the 10th anniversary of the inscription of the mining area of the Lens region as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin Mission, a development and regional planning tool, and the Louvre-Lens museum, brought together regional players to offer an ambitious program of exhibitions, moments of encounter and sharing around the performing arts, but also professional exchanges and other festive events for all audiences. So many events, including those that took place at the symbolic moment of the Feast of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners!

A flagship destination and a major cultural player

As the Ministry of Culture points out, the Louvre-Lens museum, the result of a successful partnership with local institutions, was created with “the hope of a renewal for the mining basin.” In 10 years, the museum has effectively and “solidly found its audience.” It seems to have succeeded in “the challenge of transforming the territory thanks to a rich program of workshops, visits, shows, and events for everyone.”

As such, it is now one of the important elements of the “change of perspective” on the mining basin in the north of France and has made it into what is now “a flagship destination in Hauts-de-France.” In all aspects of its programming, the museum regularly promotes this “cultural landscape” and has become a major cultural player for the influence, attractiveness and development of the mining basin.

A major exhibition and activities for all audiences

In addition to these local highlights, the Louvre-Lens museum is hosting through January 16 a very important exhibition dedicated to Jean-François Champollion, the great world-famous French archaeologist who was the first to understand hieroglyphs. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of the hieroglyphs, the Louvre-Lens is organizing a “major exhibition dedicated to one of the most fascinating symbols of Egyptian civilization: the hieroglyphs”. Thanks to more than 350 works (sculptures, paintings, works of art, and documents), the exhibition allows visitors to follow in the footsteps of Jean-François Champollion and to discover the historical context of his era, including the intellectual, scientific, cultural, archaeological, and political elements that “allowed this scientist to penetrate the thousand-year-old secret of the hieroglyphs”.

In addition to this exhibition, the Louvre-Lens organizes activities for all audiences during the Christmas holidays (from Saturday December 17 to Saturday December 31), to “share moments of “wonder and creativity on the occasion of the end-of-year celebrations.”

The Louvre-Lens museum in numbers:

more than 5 million visitors in 10 years;

28,000 m2 of total surface area, including 7,000 m2 of exhibition space and visitable archives (the Great Gallery, the Temporary Exhibition Gallery, the Glass Pavilion);

1 auditorium with 280 seats (La Scène);

6 educational workshops, 1 media library and a resource center;

1 park of 20 hectares, with 4 hectares of meadows and flower meadows and more than 30,000 trees and shrubs;

1 cafeteria, 1 restaurant, 1 bookstore-museum shop.