European Night of Museums 2026

The 22nd European Night of Museums, organised by the Ministry of Culture, will take place on Saturday 23 May 2026. A must-attend event, it enables people of all ages and backgrounds to visit over 3,000 museums across France and Europe free of charge, in the evening and in a festive atmosphere. 

Since its launch in 2005, the European Night of Museums has attracted large crowds every year to an ever-increasing number of museums. Its popularity with young people has been confirmed. 

To mark the occasion, the Marc Chagall National Museum invites you to discover its varied and poetic programme.

WORKSHOP: ‘NIGHT-TIME FANTASY CHARACTER’

7.00 pm – 8.30 pm  
Families 
Museum garden
(in the event of rain, the workshop will take place indoors, with a maximum of 16 people)

You will discover the many drawings Marc Chagall produced as preparatory work for the ballet *The Firebird*, including the stage curtain, sets and costumes. These sketches are little colourful worlds that fill you with wonder and spark the imagination. Drawing inspiration from this collection of works, you can give free rein to your imagination and add to Marc Chagall’s hybrid bestiary with fantastical nocturnal creatures. This will also be an opportunity to create bats, owls, axolotls, moths and glow-worms, bringing the enchanted forest of The Firebird to life. You will be invited to invent a brand-new character that could thrive in this magical world! Young and old alike can use coloured paper, pieces of fabric, feathers, gold and dry pastels to create these imaginary and whimsical nocturnal animals.

GUIDED TOURS

7pm and 8pm
Suitable for all ages
Duration: 1 hour

Join the museum’s docents as they guide you through the world of Marc Chagall, with a particular focus on his works from *The Biblical Message*. You’ll have the chance to admire the permanent collection in all its diversity: paintings, drawings, stained-glass windows, mosaics…

OBJET DU BEAU AND THE PERFORMANCE DU COEUR

9.00 pm – 9.30 pm
Suitable for all ages

To mark European Museum Night 2026, you will be treated to a performance created by the students of the 2025–2026 Atelier du Beau, taking the form of a dreamlike, sensual and deeply sensory narrative inspired by the world of Marc Chagall. Blending dance, theatre, poetry and sound design, this collective and immersive production unfolds at the very heart of the artworks, inviting the audience on a cosmic and ethereal journey through the visual, auditory and olfactory senses in a living dialogue with the paintings.

Featuring José Santoro, a composition research student at the Nice Conservatoire, and Frédéric Piraino, multimedia technician.

The'"object du beau"

L’Atelier du Beau is an experimental educational initiative launched in 2021 by the Marc Chagall National Museum, in partnership with the Culture Department of the Université Côte d’Azur. It enables students of all levels and disciplines to explore aesthetics, discover museum professions, and play an active role in creative and sensory mediation in dialogue with Marc Chagall.

Discover the programme for Museum Night 2026 at the other 20th-century national museums in the Alpes-Maritimes:

‘The higher I get, the lower I'll sink’
Using an electro-acoustic device, the artist transmits her heartbeat live. Through breathing exercises and muscle tension, she manages to vary her heart rate and its intensity. The resulting tension is heightened by a series of effects triggered by the heartbeat.

This performance challenges the viewer’s senses, as few movements are visible, yet the sense of hearing is strongly engaged.

Discover the programme for the Fernand Léger National Museum in Biot here.

Programme for the Pablo Picasso National Museum: War and Peace, in Vallauris
 

_{^{Photo taken during a guided tour of the Marc Chagall Museum in front of the work *The Creation of Man*, 1956–1958, oil on canvas, 299 cm x 200 cm, donated by Marc and Valentina Chagall, 1966, Marc Chagall National Museum, Nice © DR Marc Chagall National Museum, 2025 /  Photo of the performance of ‘The Object of Beauty’, staged at 109 by the students © DR Marc Chagall National Museum, 2026.}}