Uses & partners

Workshops, unaccompanied or guided tours, a range of special events and Q&As, lectures, group discussions, research initiatives—CAC Brétigny continues to thrive in a number of ways for and thanks to its users. The different uses of the center are naturally a function of those who make them a reality. Partnerships can also be formed to realize specific projects together.

Tours and workshops

Self-guided tour

A docent is on hand at all times in the exhibition space and is happy to help anyone in his or her discovery of the center’s exhibitions and other activities.

→ Admission is free and the center is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 2 to 6 pm. Late openings during evening performances at Théâtre Brétigny. Tours by appointment for the other days.

Workshop-tour

This introduction to contemporary art plays out in two phases with initially a participational tour of the show followed by a group or individual hands-on workshop. Participants explore a technique or theme they discover during the tour of the show and develop their artistic sensibility and creativity, whether sculpting clay, putting together a diorama, observing the movements of magnetic slime, etc. For each show, CAC Brétigny offers several workshops according to the age and other specifics of each group; such workshops might be thought up by an artist, for example, molding clay according to a technique developed by Hélène Bertin or a session of bodily expression imagined by Yoan Sorin. They may also be co-designed with accompanying adults and teachers.

→ Individual visits: For kids 3 years old and up. Every Wednesday during the run of a show at 2:30 pm and 4.30 pm, during scholar holiday and by appointment. Workshop schedule is available here.

→ Groups: for nursery and elementary schools, middle and high schools, day care centers, or any group that would like to extend the tour with a practical art workshop. Tours and workshops available Monday to Friday from 9:30 am to 6 pm. Registration here.

Family workshop

Family workshops are designed to be friendly and intergenerational, an event that brings together parents and children around a playful tour of the show. Beginning with the mediums and subjects seen in the show, families experience making art together and have fun while doing it, creating, for example, a totem from used objects, a kaleidoscope, a composite sketch of themselves, a talisman, etc. The tour and workshop are followed by a snack.

→ For kids 3 years old and up. Every other Saturday during the run of a show, from 3 to 4:30 pm. Workshop schedule is available here.

Tour-exploration

This tour, adapted to the level of each group, focuses especially on the exchanges between the monitor and the different participants, who are invited to talk about the artworks and the themes dealt with, to share with others and debate. This tour ends with a workshop that has been developed with the accompanying adults and teachers. The specific workshop may be on poetry, writing, studying documents, analyzing texts, and so on, in connection with the current exhibition.

→ For middle and high schools, French-as-a-second-language groups, and educational organizations.

Workshops with invited artists

CAC Brétigny invites young artists from the Île-de-France region to develop workshops for specific exhibitions. This allows them to come up with innovative formats, pass on their own practical experience and knowhow and, at the same time, foster amateur practices. For you it is the chance to work with an artist and/or discover their work through the practice of art. These workshops may take place at CAC Brétigny and partnering institutions. For example, Clara Pacotte and Alexia Foubert created a roleplay game for middle and high schoolers, and Kevin Desbouis a temporary-tattoo factory for the students of public preparatory classes for advanced art schools in the Grand Paris Sud (Greater South Paris) community.

→ Age limits apply for these workshops. For further information contact us here.

Special events

Several special events are usually held for each show and according to the guest artists’ own projects, including a primal political therapy workshop by Liz Magic Laser which was hosted by Adèle Jacques, or discussions with Sébastien Rémy or Marie Preston for the Vocales show. It’s all laid out in our events calendar!

Archives and documentation having to do with these events can be found at the bottom of the Events pages.

School projects

As part of students’ art and cultural education, we are pleased to work with teachers to develop a project in partnership with an artist. The project is then worked out in a series of exchanges between our two partnering institutions. The project may also fit into existing structures (art workshop or an artistically and culturally oriented course project, PACTE, EPI, etc.).

  • Artists’ residencies in a school setting thanks to projects like PEAC (Artistic and Cultural Educational Projects) or PACTE (Artistic and Cultural Project on Educational Territory):

Specific projects

Art residencies are regularly organized in the region with social, educational, or cultural partners, or with local businesses. Projects are always jointly built in discussion with the people involved, giving rise to innovative and sometimes unexpected practices among participating artists and partners.

  • Projects jointly realized by an artist and local organizations:
    • see Beyond the angles of the fields by Étienne de France, with the support of the Département de l’Essonne and the Service du Développement et de l'Action Territoriale de la Drac Île-de-France.
    • see I left the desert to go to the sea and it burned me realized by Celine Drouin-Laroche, with the support of the Département de l’Essonne and the Service du Développement et de l'Action Territoriale de la Drac Île-de-France.
    • see Mémoire en conflits, realized in collaboration with the Development Department of Territorial Initiative of Drac Île-de-France.
    • see Votive Tablet realized by Hélène Bertin, carried out thanks to «Culture à l'hôpital», a dispositive led by Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication—Drac Île-de-France and Regional Health Agency.
    • see [co-] realized by Marie Preston in conjunction with the "Vocales" show.
       
  • Residency-mission within a CLEA (Local Contract for Artistic Education) between Cœur d’Essonne Agglomération, Drac Île-de-France, and the Académie de Versailles:

Outreach tools and venues

At the art center

A small exhibition catalogue gives the basic information for the works on display.

Les Devignettes, a poster with self-adhesives and games for children and young people brings together educational aims and the pleasure of collecting.

Visitors may also find themselves greeted by a bit of "outreach water" conceived by Géraldine Longueville. The plants used to create these flavored waters contain different qualities that help to preserve and promote the visitor’s wellbeing. Relaxing, energizing, or stimulating, they are devised according to a body of knowledge transmitted by the artist.

The Annexe is an on-site work of art by Atelier Van Lieshout. There you will find what you need to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, and you can comfortably settle in and discover the different works that exhibition curators and artists have made available to the public. This small library also allows you to plunge into the shows through literature, philosophy, comics, etc.

The Edutainer is another on-site work by the same artists that is located outside the art center this time… Its architecture is made up of two cargo containers with a tank grafted on, conveying the idea of some activity that is currently underway. This little compartment whose interior is made entirely of wood is intimate and inviting, in contrast with its exterior. The piece is home to certain transmission activities.

On the internet site

The DP (press kit) is available for downloading approximately one month before the start of each show. It exists to help journalists as much as teachers who would like to prepare for a class visit, or indeed anyone who is looking for additional information on the art center’s projects.

Our educational file can be downloaded one month prior to each show is scheduled to open. The file offers educational approaches that make it possible to connect the programs proposed by the national educational system and the themes for reflection associated with each show. The file is designed for nursery, primary and secondary school teachers, as well as special needs teachers.

Research cycles

Each year a research cycle is worked out in partnership with one or more organizations involved in education or cultural, pedagogical, or social initiatives.

“L’Oralité, le parlé” (Orality, the Spoken) was coproduced in 2016-2017 with MAC VAL and Université Paris 8, and with the participation of Villa Vassilieff, the Université du Québec à Montréal and ÉSAD •Grenoble. This cycle is in dialogue with popular educational organizations and local partners coming from a range of cultural backgrounds. These initiatives are meant for art lovers of all ages and young researchers, and can take many forms: conferences, workshops, lectures, performances, screenings, etc. They are held at CAC Brétigny, MAC VAL, and/or Villa Vassilieff.

The research-exhibition “Double Memory,” coming after Angélique Buisson’s year-long residency at CAC Brétigny, was the result of a dialogue with three groups, the members of a veterans group, the Associations des Anciens Combattants (ULAACVG); the young soldiers of the 2nd Regiment of the Volunteer Military Service; and finally the teenagers who are involved with the Youth Services Department of the City of Brétigny-sur-Orge. Meetings, workshops, and research sessions took place throughout the show, which was conceived as an on-going observation lab in which participants sought to create a living archive.

Accessibility

CAC Brétigny is open to visitors of all ages and offers both tours adapted to groups of persons with disabilities and practical art workshops connected with current exhibitions at the center. The center’s public-outreach staff is at your disposal for advice, assistance with preparing your visit and elaborating with you a project adapted to your aims and specific needs.

Proposed partnerships

We are open to all proposals for partnerships with associations (cultural, socio-cultural, social...), primary and secondary educational institutions, schools of higher learning, day care groups of all kinds, businesses, etc.

Eager to develop projects that are more adapted to the necessities and the specificity of the contexts in which our initiatives come to fruition, we build our projects in collaboration with our partners, notably for the Finale. Thus, each year from May to July, before the summer break, performances, exhibitions, screenings, and workshops are held not only at the art center but also directly in our partners’ own spaces and in connection with the inhabitants of the region (see Evening screenings at the Centre Emmaüs Solidarité Bois de l'Abbé in Épinay-sur-Orge).

For further information on our partnerships or to become a partner, please contact our outreach staff: