The Franche Creation Museum in Bègles (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) has laid the first stone of the site marking the start of the extension work. Initiated in 2021, the museum extension and renovation project aims to increase permanent and temporary exhibition spaces and improve storage conditions for collections. Once redeveloped, the museum will have 1,550 m2, double its initial surface area. The institution has been closed since 2021, the works are temporarily stored in a municipal warehouse in Bègles.
Three new extensions of 870 m2 in total will therefore complete the historic building of the museum, an elegant 18th century bourgeois house located in a large park in the suburbs near Bordeaux. The Basalt Architecture firm was commissioned to carry out the work while respecting the aesthetics of the existing site. Designed in blond stone and in identical volumes to preserve the architectural unity of the initial building, all of the new buildings will be connected to the historic museum by a glass walkway with a patio in its center.
All 20,000 works will be moved to the new buildings. The permanent exhibition galleries will be located in the basement and the temporary exhibitions on the first floor of the new site. The new buildings will also serve as additional reserves for the conservation of works, which were a little cramped in the old museum. “We had few large format works, for example, because we couldn’t store them. Thanks to the space we will have, we were able to buy André Pailloux’s bike which is 3.50 meters long and 2 meters wide”explains Hélène Ferbos, the director of the museum, to Rue89bordeaux.com. The architectural ensemble will also include a documentation center and an auditorium.
The 13 million euro expansion project is 66% financed by the city of Bordeaux, 13% by the city of Bègles, and 21% by the State.
The first museum in France dedicated to outsider art, the Musée de la Création Franche opened in 1989 under the leadership of Gérard Sendrey, artist and general secretary of the town hall of Bègles and Noël Mamère, mayor of Bègles at the time . First a municipal museum, it came under the ownership of the city of Bordeaux in 2017 and obtained the designation Musée de France in 2023, which allows it to benefit from state support. The museum houses atypical works by 500 outsider artists such as Jean-Louis Cerisier, Serge Delaunay and Solange Knopf. The museum produced nine temporary exhibitions per year and welcomed 12,000 visitors per year before its closure in 2021.
The reopening of the museum is planned for the first half of 2026.
