If you’ve been following along this month, you know that Imaginibus's museum theme for August is PLAY. Today, I’m excited to (re)introduce you to Nolwenn, a dear friend from Paris and fellow blogger. I sent her a MusEmvelope and asked her to play in a museum. I’ll let Nolwenn take it from here:

Let me tell you about my experience with MusEmvelopes.

A few months back, Marina sent me a MusEmvelope, and as I was not expecting it, it was a great surprise to find it in my mailbox in France!

“Dear Nolwenn, here is a MusEmvelope! I’d love to know what you think. Have a nice visit! Marina”

I immediately opened it and discovered 6 cards with photos or reproductions of artworks (you can put them up on your walls, they make great decorations).

On the back, Marina wrote on each card a prompt for an activity to do in a museum. The theme of my MusEmvelope was love.

I like the fact that there are 6 cards and 6 activities to do, because you can choose to try one or two of them in one museum and save the rest for another one.

I had nothing planned that day so as soon as I opened it, I decided to go to a museum and try it out. I have been wanting to go to the Cognacq-Jay Museum in Paris for a long time and I seized the opportunity. It is a great motivation to visit a museum.

I’m actually realizing now that without Marina’s MusEmvelope, I wouldn’t have gone to that museum at all and it would still be one of those things I want to do, but oddly never find the time or the motivation.

So I went there and tried some of the activities written behind the cards. And I have to say, it’s pretty fun to go to a museum to actually do something, to have a goal, and not just visit it and leave.

I experienced it as those games of playful activities they sometimes have in museums for children, but this was the grown-up version.

I remembered a lot more than during a plain and simple visit, because in order to put the MusEmvelope’s activities into practice, I had to stand a long time in front of the artworks I selected and stare at every detail of them or imagine scenarios between the characters of the paintings, for example.

The Bather, Johann Anton de Peters (I feel like I know that painting by heart now!)

I still go to that museum from time to time and I always smile when I see the paintings I stared at, like this one above. It feels like I share something with them and I like that; it actually makes the visits more enjoyable.

If you like art, whether you’re a novice (like me) or a connoisseur, I strongly encourage you to try Marina’s MusEmvelopes. They will make your visits way more playful!

About the author: I’m Nolwenn, a Parisian of adoption. My blog, Je me prends pour une artiste ("I pretend to be an artist"), is about what I see, what astonishes me, what happens to me, what I like, what I hate, what I think… And there are a few nice pictures on it, too. Feel free to have a look!

All photos courtesy of Nolwenn

This is an installment of this month's creativity theme of PLAY. If you missed it, check out a description of the project here!