Plunging into the heart of paintings: ESMA students work with the Musée Fabre for the Nuit des Musées (Night of the Museums)

An innovative educational project in conjunction with the Musée Fabre

As part of the Nuit des Musées, ESMA teachers Ms Jourdes and Ms Barthe have devised an ambitious project for students in the Prépa Entertainment class: creating original sound clips inspired by works from the Musée Fabre‘s permanent collection .

The starting point for this initiative? The discovery of the Musair application , which offers short audio clips to guide visitors around museums in a sensitive and personal way. The concept appealed to the teachers, who saw it as a fantastic opportunity for their pupils to learn and experiment.

What are sound bites?

A sound bite is much more than a simple audio guide. It’s a short recorded narrative – just a few minutes long – that combines text, sound effects and voice. It offers a sensory and emotional journey through a work of art. It invites visitors to slow down, to look differently, to feel deeply what the painting evokes.

It is not a technical or historical analysis, but a subjective and embodied point of view, sometimes narrative, always sensitive.

A demanding and stimulating creative process

Before lending their voices, the students first immersed themselves in the visual world of the works. Each painting was observed, analysed and broken down to extract its own unique atmosphere.

Then it was time to write. Each pair or trio came up with an original narrative, appealing to the senses and the imagination, and playing on emotion. Tone, tone of voice, rhythm… all carefully crafted to create a truly immersive experience.

Finally, the audio recordings were produced. Ms Jourdes and Ms Barthe listened carefully to the 50 student productions, and selected 14 of them to be broadcast to the public during the Night of the Museums.

The works chosen and the students in the spotlight

Here is the list of works from the Musée Fabre that inspired the selected vignettes, along with the names of the students who worked on them:

• Charles Paulin François Matet, L’atelier des élèves de David: Émilie Tapie-Debat and Lorette Boeraeve
• Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of a young man and portrait of a young woman: Lorenzo Librato and Panat Giraud
• Émile Friant, Wrestling: Candice Thomas and Maddalena Aillaud; Tom Cheunot and Nathan Beraud
• Eugène Carrière, Presumed portrait of Marguerite Carrière: Camille Chezal and Camille Verlaine
• François Marius Granet, Interior of the underground church of San Martino ai Monti in Rome: Paolina Fernandez and Tom Somps
• François-André Vincent, Arria and Paetus: Eliette Harnequaux and Patrick Healy
• François-Xavier Fabre, Le retour d’Ulysse: Léon Doerler and Loann Escudier Gabrillargues
• Jean Ranc, Vertumne et Pomone: Florian Souppart and Téva Coffaro
• Jean Raoux, La toilette avant le bal: Amandine Dereux and Océane Laussel
• Jean-Antoine Houdon, Voltaire seated: Matthieu Teillet and Matthias Silbernagel
• Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, The singer: Pauline Lloria, Léna Noyer and Jolia Moreno
• Théodore Géricault, Study of feet and hands: Charline Defossez, Franck Ney and Zoé Laffitte-Wagner
• Théodore Gudin, Le Mont Saint-Michel sous l’orage: Florian Gournet and Hugo Ferroudj

An immersive experience to be discovered on 17 May

To enable visitors to enjoy this sound experience as close as possible to the works, a QR code will be affixed next to each selected painting. Simply scan the code with your smartphone to listen directly to the sound capsule created by ESMA students.

Whether you’re an art lover or just curious, this Museum Night promises to be a unique opportunity to rediscover the masterpieces of the Musée Fabre through the eyes and voices of promising young talents.

A collective success

ESMA extends its warmest congratulations to the students for the quality, sensitivity and creativity of their proposals. This project fully illustrates the ambitions of the Prépa Entertainment class: to sharpen the eye, develop artistic expression and experiment with innovative formats at the crossroads of art and sound.

Join us on Saturday 17 May at the Musée Fabre, from 7pm, for an evening stroll like no other, guided by the inspired voices of our students.

See all the projects in our gallery!