Looking for a way to take the Christmas story with you wherever you go? The 15th century German world had a solution: mobile personal chapels. Take the “Chapelle Cardon” in the Musée du Louvre: this small mobile chapel would have been used for private devotion when it was made in the early 1400s. It includes [...]
Read MoreThis painting, this fête galante, full of lovers in a garden, is a celebration of flirtation and love. While the young lovers are the focal point of the painting, a full half of the painting is dedicated to the landscape, to the architecture, to the physicality of the scene. As I looked at this painting by Nicolas Lancret, newly [...]
Read MoreMerry Christmas! One December, when I was living in Paris, I got the idea into my head to make a Christmas-themed audio tour of the Louvre. I recorded commentaries on artworks in the Richelieu wing that featured scenes of the Nativity, the Visitation of the Magi, etc. While the final product was less than [...]
Read MoreThis month's Creativity Theme is CELEBRATION. So, with Christmas approaching, I gave myself a challenge for my visit to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: find a way to celebrate Christmas inspired by artwork seen in the museum. I figured the most literal way to be inspired would be by [...]
Read MoreI assumed that my first winter in Montreal would be covered in snow. Prior to my move here this October, I obsessed with preparations for winter: I stocked up on puffy coats, heavy-duty boots, strap-on cleats for icy days... Friends, it is now December and this is the weather. Rain?! Perhaps this explains [...]
Read MoreThere is a ridiculously cool exhibition now on in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Seventy songbirds fill a room littered with electric guitars on stands. As the birds perch on the strings of the guitars, they create a cacophonous song of pre-recorded rock, punk and heavy-metal chords. The installation [...]
Read MoreI had been waiting all morning for the Creativity Factory to open. I was visiting the Montreal Science Centre with two of my favorite kiddos (and their mom and dad), and we had spent the morning learning about the human body. But I was anxious to get to an exhibit called Fabrik - Creativity Factory. "What [...]
Read MoreThe Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has a great collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings, from Gerard ter Borch’s satiny skirts to Rembrandt’s moody lighting. On a recent visit of these galleries, as this month's creativity theme is CELEBRATION, I considered how best to celebrate these marvels. I [...]
Read MoreThis month's creativity theme is CELEBRATION. For my first December museum visit, I went to the Redpath Museum, McGill University's natural history museum. The museum feels very old school: temple-like stone façade, lots of carved wood, the occasional hand-written label... The museum also [...]
Read MoreIt's December! And, for reasons that I imagine do not need an explanation, this month's creativity theme will be CELEBRATION! All month, I will be visiting museums with this lens. I am having a lot of fun coming up with different ideas, and they are all joyful! Not only will I be looking at depictions of [...]
Read MoreMuseums can be very romantic places. My favorite museum dates have been in quiet, off the beaten track institutions with eclectic collections. These places facilitate good conversations and set a mood for the whole encounter. You can really get to know someone by hearing his or her reactions to an artwork or artifact [...]
Read MoreStill lives are incredibly sensual beings. But not only do they exemplify virtuosity, their aim is to sneakily make you think about the very nature of life itself. Given this, why are they so easy to just skim by in museums? Filmed partially in the Louvre in 2011, this little video aims to explore both the sensual and moral aspects of this subtle genre [ ... ]
Read MoreThe Niki de Saint Phalle exhibition at the Grand-Palais is a joy, a pleasure, a celebration. Before this exhibition, I only knew Saint Phalle as the artist behind the Stravinsky Fountain by the Centre Pompidou, and other such colorful creations. I was not expecting to be blown away (as I was) by the force of her artworks’ color, form [ ... ]
Read MoreIt was Friday night and the Louvre felt like it belonged to me. I wandered through dim galleries until I came upon one of my favorite spaces in the Louvre: the Cour Marly, the enormous glass-roofed gallery filled with outdoor statuary from the park of the Château de Marly. People [ ... ]
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This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
IMAGINIBUS is a blog about playing in museums, with a focus on imagination and creativity.
This blog is a place to be inspired to use your imagination around artworks—and to see the art of your daily life.
When we engage creatively with art, museums can become playgrounds and laboratories to experiment with attention, mindfulness, and imagination. Interesting things happen when we use that museum gaze to look at our daily lives like a work of art.
Find more inspiration for playing with new ways of paying attention to your daily life here.
Hello! I'm Marina Gross-Hoy, a writer, Museum Studies PhD candidate, and mother currently living in Quebec. I take playing in museums very seriously.
Read more about the blog here.
Check out my newsletter on Substack to be inspired to see the art in your daily life.
