2026–2027 Cultural Season
Download the 2025-2026 cultural season brochure
Editorial by the Director of the National Museums of the 20th Century in the Alpes-Maritimes
From One Season to the Next
The 2024–2025 season is coming to a close on a positive note: strong attendance (with 172,033 visitors to our three museums since January 2025) and increased visibility for our traveling exhibitions, both in France and abroad.
An exhibition season marked by three Italian collaborations
The exhibition Fernand Léger and the New Realisms, first presented in Biot in 2024 thanks to a partnership with the MAMAC in Nice, was a resounding success in the spring of 2025 during its Paris stop at the Musée du Luxembourg, where it welcomed more than 111,000 visitors. It is now enjoying a new lease on life in the superb historic setting of the Venaria Reale Palace, near Turin, where it has just opened to the public. Also in Italy, in Ravenna, the second stop of the “Chagall and the Mosaic” exhibition, at the Museo d’Arte della Città di Ravenna. This exhibition, the first dedicated to this theme, was the result of a research partnership with the Friends of Marc Chagall and is accompanied by a catalog and the publication of the catalog raisonné of the mosaics on the marcchagall.com website. Finally, the last Italian collaboration of the upcoming season is an exhibition scheduled at the Museo Archeologico Regionale in Aosta, titled “Marc Chagall: Between Poetry and Spirituality,” which will open in June 2026.
This winter, under the title “Chagall at Work,” the Marc Chagall National Museum will exhibit the exceptional donation made in 2022–2023 by Bella and Meret Meyer to the National Museum of Modern Art / Centre Georges Pompidou. Nearly 141 works—ceramics, sculptures, but above all graphic works and preparatory drawings for the costumes and sets of the ballet *The Firebird* (1945), and for the Paris Opera ceiling project (completed in 1964) —will be exhibited in two successive phases from February to September 2026.
During the summer of 2026, the Fernand Léger National Museum will dedicate an exhibition to the ballet *La Création du monde*, for which Fernand Léger designed the sets and costumes. A revolutionary work, created for the Swedish Ballets in 1923, the piece features a libretto by Blaise Cendrars, original music by Darius Milhaud, and choreography by Jean Börlin. To illustrate this story of the origins of humanity—inspired by African mythology and the spirit of jazz—Léger succeeded in fusing painting and dance.
Finally, as part of our series of exhibitions featuring contemporary artists, the Pablo Picasso Museum’s *War and Peace* exhibition will host a show dedicated to Pascale Marthine Tayou, conceived in dialogue with the chapel. The year 2026 will also see the installation of a new educational program focused on Picasso’s masterpiece, *War and Peace*. Designed to make the chapel more accessible to all audiences, it offers a sensory and educational exploration of this landmark work.
An ever-evolving events program
For the new 2025–2026 season, a rich cultural program will offer new ways to experience the museum: through dance, music, or circus performances, to be enjoyed with friends or family.
The series of lectures on art history and aesthetics benefits this year from a new partnership with the Center for Research in the History of Ideas (CRHI) at Université Côte d’Azur. For the second consecutive year, our “carte blanche” program for conservatory students will welcome not only student musicians but also young dancers.
The program commemorating the 70th anniversary of Fernand Léger’s death continues in 2025–2026 with the presentation of a new production for the Fernand Léger National Museum by the company L’Atelier des Songes: *Bonjour, Monsieur Fernand!*, a puppet show accompanied by an exhibition in January 2026.
We look forward to welcoming you this year for new moments of shared enjoyment and delight in our museums! Finally, let us conclude with warm thoughts for two individuals to whom we owe a great deal and who have recently passed away: Henri Fisch (1934–2025), designer of the gardens at the Fernand Léger National Museum (1960) and the Marc Chagall National Museum (1973), and Elisabeth Pacoud-Rème (1948–2025), former curator of the Marc Chagall National Museum and president of the Friends of the Museum association since 2016.
Anne Dopffer
Chief Curator of Heritage
Director of the National Museums of the 20th Century in the Alpes-Maritimes
Image: Floral arrangement by Bella Meyer, in front of Marc Chagall’s works, The Striking of the Rock (1960–1966, oil on canvas) and Noah’s Ark (1961–1966, oil on canvas), during the celebratory weekend marking the 50th anniversary of the Marc Chagall National Museum in Nice. Photo: © Gilles Ehrentrant © Adagp, Paris, 20242024.
