Sound cards: 20 works from the mahJ available in audio description

Two series of audio-description podcasts of artworks in the museum, produced in partnership with Ce Que Mes Yeux Ont Vu.

Une quinzaine de jeunes, certains en apprentissage du français langue étrangère, ont participé à huit activités au mahJ : une visite du musée, centrée sur la découverte des dix objets – dont des lampes pour la fête des Lumières, une robe de mariée juive marocaine, une sculpture d’Alfred Dreyfus… – mais aussi des ateliers de médiation autour des œuvres et des ateliers de théâtre pour apprendre à poser la voix. Ces séances ont également impliqué une vingtaine de membres du personnel du musée.

Présentation du projet

The Pastilles sonores are a set of twenty recordings designed in accordance with the Ministry of Culture's audiodescription protocol. These capsules make twenty emblematic works from the museum's permanent collection accessible to the visually impaired. There are two themed series to discover: ‘Œuvres phares du mahJ’ and ‘Art moderne et contemporain’.

These sound pastilles were produced in collaboration with the cultural and social enterprise Ce Que Mes Yeux Ont Vu (new tab), whose programme, L'Œil est la Voix, is aimed at the visually impaired, for whom the mahJ is working on this project in particular.

Other partners were called in to record the texts, following their discovery of the works and the techniques of reading aloud, as well as the museum's professions (forum des métiers). The first series of audio pastilles is based on the involvement in 2020 of :

the Second Chance School in Rosny-Sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis,
the Épinay-Sur-Seine closed educational centre,

The second series, in 2022, focuses on :

Microlycée de Paris, a public school for young people who want to resume their studies and prepare for a general baccalaureate after dropping out of school.

In all, around thirty young people, some of whom were learning French as a foreign language, took part in a number of activities at the mahJ: a tour of the museum, centred on the discovery of ten objects or ten works of art, as well as workshops to make the works their own and theatre workshops to learn how to use their voices. These sessions also involved around ten members of museum staff for each series. These activities culminated in a trio of students and museum staff recording the works, which was the high point of the project.

The special featureture of the second series of ‘Modern and Contemporary Art’ sound pastilles is that it also relies on musicians from the Musique à l'image section of the Conservatoire national de musique et de danse de Paris (new tab), led by their teacher Marie-Jeanne Séréro: they have composed a musical accompaniment for each of the pastilles.

More than a mere mediation device, the podcasts are an inclusive and participatory project that reflects the values of intercultural dialogue espoused by the mahJ.

Picture of a young woman recording a podcast in a museum's room

A young girl records a sound clip in the museum. She is in the lamp room of the Festival of Light. You can see the microphone above her. She is facing her desk, in the middle of a sound recording.

"The positive view you take of our young people helps us to value them and to involve them in the life of a community of citizens."

Yasmine Boutkhili, Service Manager, Épinay-Sur-Seine Closed Educational Centre

‘The kindness, availability and attentiveness of all the museum's employees enabled our trainees to open up and enjoy a truly transforming experience.’

Hervé Coué, Director, École de la^2e Chance in Seine-Saint-Denis