Since 2013, a unique partnership has been bringing together two universes that are a priori far apart: healthcare and culture. APHP and the Musée du Louvre have joined forces to make art accessible to those who can’t get there.
Interview with Juliette Carvunis and Dr François Nataf, respectively Head of Culture and Wellness at APHP and Head of Neurosurgery at APHP Lariboisière.
Can you tell us how this unique partnership between the AP-HP and the Louvre came about?
Juliette Carvunis – The “Louvre at the hospital” project was born of a shared desire between the APHP and the Louvre to offer those who are unable to do so the pleasure of contemplating works from the Louvre.
Launched in 2013, this partnership creates a living link between culture and healthcare by offering patients, their families and caregivers privileged access to the artistic, historical and heritage wealth of the Louvre.
Today, the partnership has five components:
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- L’art en partage – Talking about the museum’s collections: hospital meetings and discussions led by Louvre mediators around the works of art.
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- Face aux œuvres – Visiter le Louvre: guided tours and workshops organized at the museum for patients, their families and caregivers.
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- Art in everyday life – The power of images in hospitals: two travelling exhibitions, “La Couleur Bleue” and “Chefs-d’œuvre du Louvre”, are currently on tour in the 38 hospitals of the APHP.
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- The museum as a partner – Training professionals: cross-training courses are offered to hospital teams to help them appropriate the cultural content, and to Louvre staff to raise their awareness of hospital work.
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- Le Louvre à l’écran: the museum provides free digital content (films, documentaries, podcasts, series…) for hospitalized patients.
What were your motivations and objectives in imagining such a collaboration between a hospital institution and a museum?
J.C – The partnership between AP-HP and the Louvre Museum aims to offer patients, their families and professionals enriching cultural and artistic activities.
The aim is to improve the welcome and environment for all users by introducing notions of well-being, comfort and pleasure into everyday hospital life.
The project also seeks to mitigate the disruptions caused by illness and hospitalization, and to foster exchanges between caregivers and patients through culture.
For the Louvre, the challenge is to introduce hospital visitors to works of art and artists, making the museum a place of expression, creation and sharing.
The aim is to awaken curiosity and nurture links with culture, even outside the walls of the museum, by facilitating sustainable cultural practice beyond the time of hospitalization.
For the APHP, this partnership is part of a strong commitment to fully integrating culture into healthcare establishments, opening hospitals up to the community and promoting an approach to care that considers the individual in all his or her dimensions: physical, psychological, social and cultural.
In this way, it contributes to improving the quality of care, supporting care pathways and providing a more stimulating and rewarding working environment for hospital teams.
Why did you choose Vermeer’s Lacemaker as the symbol for the ZAP-X project?
Dr François Nataf – Vermeer would have been fascinated by the technical advances of the 21st century, so much so that this painting is renowned for its technical finesse, which allows it to be associated with Zap-X, so it was an obvious choice.
Implementing ZAP-X required unprecedented coordination between very different worlds. How did you manage hospital, cultural, heritage and industrial logics within the same project?
F.N – The successful implementation of ZAP-X relies above all on the strength of a close-knit, multi-disciplinary team, capable of bringing together worlds with sometimes very different logics.
This project was made possible thanks to the complementary strengths of the public sector, particularly hospitals and heritage sites, and those of the private sector. Each brought its own expertise, language, constraints and capacity for innovation.
It was this diversity, united around a common goal, that enabled us to transform this complex challenge into a successful collective adventure.
The decision to collaborate with such a prestigious cultural institution is an important one. Is it a desire to reposition the hospital as a cultural and societal player in its own right?
J.C – Yes, absolutely. The hospital is a place of care, but also a social space that must be fully integrated into the life of the city. This partnership with the Louvre Museum promotes access to culture at the heart of the hospital and in everyday hospital life.
This collaboration brings an artistic interpretation to a medical subject. How do you think this influences the public’s perception of cutting-edge medicine?
J.C – La Dentellière brings a sensitive, emotional dimension to waiting and care areas. By arousing wonder and curiosity, it becomes a genuine medium for dialogue and strengthens bonds between patients and caregivers.
Present alongside cutting-edge technology that is sometimes perceived as cold or intimidating, this iconic work humanizes the medical environment, bringing warmth and comfort.
Dr. Nataf’s initiative reflects his deep desire to offer his patients a vision that is both sensitive and accessible, while providing access to a genuine work of art.
Can we imagine this alliance between art and medicine becoming a tool for broader communication on public health issues?
J.C – Art is a powerful communication lever, capable of raising awareness of health issues by making messages more accessible, lively and emotionally engaging.
Initiatives such as the Académie Culture-Santé, run by Théâtre de la Ville, are a good illustration of this dynamic: they create a cross-disciplinary dialogue between medical students, caregivers, researchers and artists.
Similarly, events such as the Pop & Psy festival demonstrate the extent to which culture can support prevention, health education and the dissemination of information to the general public.
Will this collaboration between the APHP and the Louvre be a long-term one? Are other joint projects already planned?
J.C – Our collaboration, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023 is now part of our renewed 4ᵉ partnership agreement.
On the strength of this rich and dynamic track record (over 1,100 actions carried out, 20,000 patients, 4,000 professionals reached, 57 training courses held), we continue to look to the future, with new projects in the pipeline.
Since the beginning of our partnership, we have maintained a rich, high-quality program, while developing original initiatives such as game books, art libraries, “Prenez la Parole au Louvre” workshops and virtual reality.
> Find out more about the collaboration
> Watch the interview with the Louvre curator
