To A Lifetime of Meaningful Encounters

This project celebrated people who, like Henri Matisse, were born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis. The small town in northern France is also the site of the Matisse Museum which displays artworks by Matisse and artifacts from his life. We curated and installed personal museums inside the Matisse Museum with each participant born in Le Cateau. The personal museums displayed individualized replicas of the Matisse Museum’s exterior signage, biographies of the participants, and significant objects from their lives. Museum signage placed in the front windows of participants’ homes extended the exhibition into the community. In addition, we made a film about birth that shares the stories of community members born in Le Cateau, and a book about the agricultural history of the region with local students and a local dairy farmer. The book is available through One Star Press.