Scolaires

L’équipe du Service des publics de la Cité de la tapisserie propose aux enseignants, de la maternelle à l'enseignement supérieur, aux responsables de groupes scolaires ou périscolaires, un programme complet d'activités adaptées à tous les niveaux et programmes scolaires.

Fermeture pour travaux à partir du 27 août 2024 jusqu'en janvier 2025. Reprise de l'accueil scolaire en février 2025.

Découvrez l'ensemble des activités proposées

 

     

 

Organisez votre visite à la Cité

Service des publics 

Lauren Keller / service-educatif@cite-tapisserie.fr / 09 72 43 89 77

Réservations et accueil des groupes

Dorothée Toty / service-educatif@cite-tapisserie.fr / 05 55 66 66 66

Enseignant partenaire 

Romain Bonnot - Enseignant en histoire-géographie, Lycée Eugène Jamot, Aubusson / romain.bonnot@cite-tapisserie.fr / service-educatif@cite-tapisserie.fr

Des possibilités d'accueil sur la journée 

De façon à optimiser au mieux votre temps, la visite du musée peut être couplée avec un voire deux ateliers de votre choix. Ce qui permet de passer la matinée et une partie de l'après-midi à Aubusson. Pour maintenir une qualité d'accueil, le Service des publics vous invite à ne pas surcharger vos effectifs au-delà d'une classe. 

Des possibilités de manger à Aubusson

Des accords peuvent être mis en place entre établissements scolaires pour que les élèves puissent manger au self d'Aubusson. Par ailleurs, sous réserve de maintenir les locaux très propres, des pique-niques peuvent être envisagés au sein du musée dans la salle d'activités pédagogiques ou dans le hall.

 

Tarifs des activités

Gratuité pour les établissements scolaires du département de la Creuse et les lycées de la Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine :

Gratuité des visites et ateliers (2 euros pour les ateliers Nénette et Rintintin, Dom Robert, Les alentours, Je tisse mon échantillon)

Pour les établissements scolaires hors du département et de la région :

35 euros pour la visite guidée de groupe (jusqu'à 20 personnes)

2 euros par élève pour les ateliers sans supports pédagogiques individuels, 5 euros par élève pour les ateliers avec supports pédagogiques individuels (livrets)

La Verdure fine aux armes du comte de Brühl

An innovative museum

A reference collection

The missions of the Cité internationale de la tapisserie is to preserve, enrich and highlight this great craftsmanship. With a new cultural and scientific project, the Cité builds a reference collection to trace five centuries and a half of weavings in Aubusson.

A young, developing collection

The Departmental Museum of tapestry in Aubusson was created in 1981. Its collection is still young, like the museum's history. With its label « Musée de France », it belongs to the Departmental Council of Creuse. 

The progressive development of a reference collection

The Cité de la tapisserie reasserts the original intention of building a reference collection offering a complete view of the production of tapestries in Aubusson from the XVth century to nowadays.

A few figures

440 tapestries and carpets, including 330 wall tapestries.

16,000 Graphic artworks from the collections of the museum and the National School of Decorative Art, and among them about 4,500 models and drawings

50 pieces of woven furniture

20 tools and weaving equipment

5,000 woven pieces, deposits of the National School of Decorative Art. Mainly samples, a few tapestries of medium size, made by trainees. These pieces draw the history of the institution since it was created in 1884, and show the evolution in weaving training.

600 pieces of Saracen embroidery, made by the students of the School for girls in the National School of Decorative Art between 1880 and 1918

Aubusson craftsmanship

A living material

“The history of wool is closely intertwined with tapestry history. Its multiple qualities, the matte finish and the depth of its color tones, its elasticity during the weaving process and the warmth of its aspect make it the ultimate noblest fiber” Louis-Marie Julien, cartoon painter (1904 – 1982)

Tapestry weaving is a matter of fibers, and first and foremost the wool, lagging, flexible, resistant and most of all particularly adapted to dyeing.

Wool comes from the sheep fleece. A large amount of races exists, each giving various qualities to the wool, in terms of length, resistance and fiber delicacy. The legal appellation for “wool” covers fibers coming from other animals as well, such as alpacas, llamas, camels, Angora rabbits, Kashmir and Angora goats (mohair wool). However, these specialized wools are produced in extremely limited quantities and are mostly used in addition to sheep wool.

To harvest the wool, the fleeces have to be shorn; in the past, using a pair of scissors called “forces” and nowadays, much quicker with an electric clipper. A fleece weights in average from 2 to 5 kg (from 4, 5 to 11 pounds approximately). A large amount of grease and impurities leaves the fleece in one piece. Before cleaning the wool, the fleece must be separated according to the different quality areas, more or less fine depending on their Location on the animal: This is known as the sorting step.

The wool quality is evaluated following five criteria: traction resistance, fibers delicacy, fibers length, “crimp” and color. This sorting produces different batches which are to be sent to the washing, which will process the wool destined, among other things, to be spun.

In Limousin, ovine breeding is a tradition, especially in the Millevaches regional natural Park. The Aubusson-Felletin textile environment and the breeding tradition lead many actors (elected representatives, associations, producers, etc.)  to try and reposition the locally produced wool within Creuse's arts and textile industry. Even if the wool is still mainly imported from Australia and the Creusois ovine sector is mainly centered on meat production, more and more breeders are becoming aware of the wool potential of their exploitation.

Thus, some projects destined to encourage the production, the transformation and the use of local wool are blooming. The LAINAMAC (Histoire de laines) association [advocates for a local wool industry, particularly by covering its uses in touristic accommodations and sustainable buildings. It has worked... with the Fonty spinning mill as well, in order to launch an original action in Creuse: Artistic projects made with a wool of an delicacy unseen in France, naturally colored, thanks to the importation of 300 black Merino ewes from Portugal. LAINAMAC has set a system of flock sponsorship, launched at the end of 2010. The first flock has arrived in Creuse in October 2011 in the agricultural college of Ahun. Eventually, about ten breeders will be able to supply the spinning mill to create a range of dyeless colored threads.

Discover the digitisations of the resources centre films, recordings and weavers interviews (in French), archives, photos. Immerse yourself in fiber with our gigapixel tapestry viewer. 

The documents of the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Corpus" were digitised by means of the call for digitisation of the French Ministry of Culture. 

À la Une

Young audiences

Contact and reservations

Réservations et accueil des groupes

Dorothée Toty / dorothee.toty [@]cite-tapisserie.fr / 05 55 83 08 30

 

Enseignant référent / aide à la conception d'activités

Romain Bonnot, enseignant d'histoire-géographie / romain-jacques.bonnot[@]ac-limoges.fr

Partners

Union Européenne

L'Union Européenne soutient le projet de la Cité de la tapisserie.

Professionals and trainings

Weavers vocational training

The inscription of Aubusson tapestry on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO occurred at a time when this centuries old craftsmanship was at risk. To preserve it the Cité, in partnership with the GRETA in Creuse (institution for adults training), created a training course for weavers. This training for weavers evolved into a National Arts and Crafts Degree in September 2016 and is hosted in a dedicated area in the Cité de la tapisserie.

A training room for budding weavers

The training area is located in the former weaving workshop the students used in the National School of Decorative Art. The architects selected a clever technological solution : building on the existing metallic structure, they created an indirect lighting system emulating the zenithal daylight of the original workshop (with no drop shadow).

 

 

Pour aller plus loin

Contacts

Sylvie Lagrange, GRETA Creuse : sylvie.lagrange@ac-limoges.fr

Delphine Mangeret, coordinator : delphine.mangeret@ac-limoges.fr

GRETA Creuse

Lycée Jean Favard, 27 route de Courtille, 23000 Guéret - France / +33 (0)5 55 51 34 80

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION FILE.

Young audiences

Public contracts

Current calls for tender of the Cité: