Katharine: Night at the Museum

At a late-2015 Coffee Chat morning, Cerese and Sonia led those present in a discussion of how we might help two of Sonia's students - Tess and Elyse - with their project of pixellating an Impressionist painting that hangs in the Musee Fabre.  Their project's focus (they are students at the Univ. of Sciences in Montpellier) was to re-color four times, digitally, the painting into the four seasons of the year.  They demonstrated this to us at January's Coffee Chat, and had asked for help in retrieving appropriate english-language poetry to illustrate each Season.  In January's session, they showed us each seasonal variation of the painting, and recorded a few of us reciting the poetry that fit each season.

Well, we were able to see and hear the outcome of our sessions at the late-January Night at the Museum student evening - where students (and their guests - that was us) are given free entry to the Musee Fabre and its entire collection (including the current exhibit on Senufo West African Art - which inspired Picasso to come to France).  Dotted amongst the collections were the students' projects on display.

l to r:  Mary-Catherine, Grazia, Daniel, Cerese, Katharine, Sonia

Our group from AWG - comprising Mary-Catherine, Sonia, Fred, Cerese, Grazia (and son Daniel), Katharine C (and spouse Philip) - met for a convivial apero at Chez Boris on the Esplanade before strolling along to the Museum and joining a long, long line of students going in to the Museum.

---- and our group were photobombed in this shot.  Students having fun! 

We had a map of the Museum and set off in search of Tess and Elyse and their project - and there it was, (not far from the original painting that they'd colorized),  displayed on a flatscreen on the wall, with our voices (those of Cerese, Jane, Katharine and Corinne) reciting the poetry that the project's leaders had chosen.

And the pictures in each of the seasons were stunning.  The picture itself is stunning, but it was eerie to see it in white, winter colours (backed by Jane's voice).  

The original painting:   La route au lieu dit "L'Hort", painted by Achille Laugé

Well done to them - they received a mark of 17 (a tres bien) on their project.

And to all of the students - wonderful to see throngs of them wishing to go to our local treasure, the Musee Fabre. 

Editor:  Note that our original Coffee Chat meeting, when this project was first discussed, is posted in Scriveners in January 2016, under "Cerese:  Coffee Chat joined by Sonia's University students".