On your own or on a guided tour
Exposition temporaire : Anne et Patric Poirier. Odyssée de l’oubli
May 22 to August 30, 2026
Duration: 1 hour
Anne et Patrick Poirier investissent les espaces du Patio et de la Chapelle de l’Oratoire. Leurs œuvres, nourries par l’architecture, l’archéologie, la psychanalyse ou encore les grands mythes et utopies, se déploient sous forme d’installation monumentales, de dessins et de peintures. Elles questionnent la fragilité des civilisations, de la nature et de la mémoire, individuelle ou collective, face aux catastrophes ou au temps qui s’écoule.
À noter : de la musique à forte intensité est diffusée dans les deux espaces de l’exposition, en continu dans la Chapelle et par intermittence dans le Patio. Elle est susceptible de troubler l’attention.
Exposition temporaire : Plants and People
January 30, 2026 to January 3, 2027 – Room 21
Mediation visits from March to June 2026 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
Duration: 1 to 1.5 hours depending on the number of participants
Born out of a collaboration between the Nantes Museum of Art and the Pays de la Loire Regional Contemporary Art Fund, Plants and Peopleaddresses the question of the place of living things in our relationship with the world. With a selection of historical and contemporary works from both institutions, the exhibition explores the notions of conservation and preservation through the metaphor of plants.
Self-guided tour
The museum invites you to discover its collections on your own (without a mediator), with tours adapted to each school level and to the French national education curriculum. Visits can last between 1h and 1h30, depending on the level and theme.
Self-guided thematic tours for grades5 to 12 are part of each student's artistic and cultural education program.
A visit to a museum contributes to the acquisition of a general culture through the discovery of a cultural institution and the sensitive experience of encountering works of art from different periods and using different techniques.
Visits are organized in small groups, encouraging all students to express their perceptions, feelings and understanding of the works.
Accompanying files are available for download for each visit. You can adapt the content to suit the level of your students.
For the visual arts, visit the DRAEAC educational websiteat New window fora wealth of resources to help you set up your projects.
Suggested routes
Free tour of the permanent collections
Durée : 1h à 1h30
À partir de 11h15
Would you like to take your own free tour of the Musée d'arts de Nantes? This is possible every day from 11.15 am, subject to availability.
To make your visit as comfortable as possible, we simply ask you to indicate on the New Window pre-booking form the works you wish to stop in front of.
Painting, poetry and literature
Duration: 1h30
How have literary works influenced painting? How can a painting illustrate or reinterpret a text? Through a selection of works from the museum's 19th-century collection, this tour introduces visitors to major artistic movements such as Romanticism and Realism, and explores the links between literary creation and painting.
Art, nature and landscape course
Duration: 1h
What relationship do artists have with nature? This tour takes a look at the evolution of this relationship, from 17th-century landscape painting to contemporary art installations.
Guided tours
The museum will help you discover its collections with themed tours adapted to each school level, lasting from 1h to 1h30!
Guided tours for junior and senior high school classes are part of each student's artistic and cultural education program.
A visit to a museum contributes to the acquisition of a general culture through the sensitive experience of encountering works of art from different periods and of different kinds. These visits enable students to enhance their artistic culture, and to identify and understand certain components of the language of art.
Visits are organized in small groups, accompanied by the museum's mediator/lecturer or the teacher, to encourage self-expression.
For the visual arts, visit the In Situ educational site New window for a wide range of resources to help you set up your projects: www.pedagogie.ac-nantes.fr/arts-plastiques-insitu New window
Guided tours of the permanent collections
Discovery tour
Duration: 1h
On a journey from ancient to contemporary art, students discover the museum's spaces, its architecture and some of its emblematic works, for a first immersion in its collections.
From Renaissance to Neo-Classicism
Duration: 1h
This tour features a selection of works from the museum's collections, covering the chronological period from the Renaissance to the 18th century. It will enable students to observe changes and evolutions in painting through Italian, French and Flemish works.
The great movements of the 19th century
Duration: 1h
This tour invites students to discover a selection of works produced in the 19th century, covering the main artistic trends of the period, including Romanticism, Academism and Realism.
The shock of modernity
Duration: 1h
What are modernity and the avant-garde in painting?
Discover how, from the end of the 19th century, art has been moving towards modernity.
What is abstraction?
Cycle 4 only
Duration: 1h
Rhythm, repetition, control or spontaneity... From geometric abstraction to gestural art, this tour explores abstraction and its various forms.
Abstractions: rhythm, color and construction...
Only from high school
Duration: 1h
What is abstraction, and is it so disconnected from life? On the face of it, there's no connection between a geometric shape and our everyday lives. And yet, through their play of lines and colors, abstract paintings and sculptures have everything to do with music, dance, architecture and textile design. In the company of Vassily Kandinsky and Sonia Delaunay, this tour invites you to step out of the frame and into the world.
A place of your own: women artists
Duration: 1h
Becoming an artist as a woman is not a matter of course. Time and social background play a decisive role in this career choice.
The Musée d'arts de Nantes boasts a representative panel of works by women artists. This tour invites you to meet them.
Discover the museum in Breton!
Duration: 1 hour
Visits possible on Fridays, December 5, 2025, February 6 and June 5, 2026, from 9.45 a.m.
Discover the Musée d'arts de Nantes with a Breton-speaking guide.
Ergerzhout ar rmirdi
Petra eo ur Mirdi arzoù ? Peseurt oberennoù a c'heller gwelout ennañ? Kit da zizoleiñ Mirdi an arzoù, e istor e disavouriezh ha liesseurted e zastumadegoù. Eus an henarz d'an arz a-vremañ, eus pales an arzoù 1900 d'ar C'hub an XXIvet kantved e roio deoc'h an hentad-se ur sell kentañ Mirdi arzoù Naoned.