Since 30 years of daring innovation, the cultural landscape in Nantes keeps on changing with new venues and projects. The will is to make tourism and the economy rhyme with culture and art. The common culture of the public areas, shops and parks are all flying the flag of creativity.
VOYAGE À NANTES–THE EVENT
30th JUNE TO 26th AUGUST 2018 Each summer the Voyage à Nantes brings the eponymous sensitive and poetic urban trail to life. Artists, designers, gardeners, cooks, DJs and graffiti artists are invited to express their creativity in public spaces. With 40 amazing steps to link up the whole cultural package the town goes a little bit further off-beat than normal. Must see: the ephemeral installations, the works of art. Must experience: the places where it’s good to meet, coming together unexpectedly.
TO RE-DISCOVER
« LE MUSÉE D’ARTS » The Musée d’arts reopened in June 2017. Steered by the Stanton-Williams Agency (Royal National Theatre, Tower of London, Belgrade Theatre, etc…), it houses a total of 17,000 m2, several exhibition halls and an auditorium. A key change is a 30% increase in exhibition space for one of the only ‘generalist’ museums in France. In fact, it is the only one outside Paris able to present such an extensive and broad panorama of art stretching from the thirteenth to the twenty-first century. It has 10,000 works of art (paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and contemporary installations), and several hundred masterpieces painted by De la Tour, Ingres, Courbet, Chagall, Kandinsky, Picasso...
TO ENJOY
LA CANTINE DU VOYAGE FROM APRIL TO SEPTEMBER A warm and friendly gourmet setting originally, La Cantine is now firmly on the menu for every Voyage à Nantes. Housed in a temporary structure made from industrial greenhouses, it sets up from spring to early autumn on the banks of the Loire on the quays of the Isle of Nantes. It is a bar and a place to eat where you can come to enjoy local foods: farm produced chicken potatoes. It’s a temporary set up covering 2,000 m2 with plenty to keep you amused including French boules and table football. La Cantine also houses a Skate ô Drome and a vegetable garden! The graphics and colorful stage staging was entrusted to the Nantes arts collective ‘Appelle-moi papa’.
MAJOR PROJECTS AND ARCHITECTURE
NANTES, RENNES, SAINT MALO UP TO THE MONT ST MICHEL : A MODERN TRAIL ACROSS AN OLD COUNTRY 2018 The launch of the new trail in 2018: 8 days, 7 nights, from May to September, to discover or rediscover Breton culture. Around forty stopovers characterised by the same specifications of uniqueness and originality as those seen in the Voyage à Nantes. It’s about showcasing heritage and with the help of creators, designers and graphic designers, also giving it a fresh feel... The itinerary is an invitation to taking a modern look at the scenery and the cultural and natural heritage of this land. THE HERON TREE 2021 It is a monumental tree, 35m high and 50m in diameter crowned by 2 herons. Visitors can ride under their wings as they fly and go from branch to branch in this incredible hanging garden. One 20m prototype branch is already making its way out of the de of the workshops. While waiting for its ‘planting’ in the Carrière from Bas Chantenay, the universe of vegetation and the Heron Tree set the scene in the Gallery.