Martine Thomas-Bourgneuf
8, rue de la Py 75020 Paris / 00 33 (0)1 43 57 96 19
mtb(at)wanadoo.fr (contact)

Paris, March 2024,

Thank you for visiting this site where I am presenting my professional activities.

I design thematic exhibitions, temporary or permanent (they are then museums), small or large - in terms of their content. This is called museology or museography*: I am a museologist, or a museographer.

From a subject that can be a theme, a collection, a proper name, a territory, a site, a moment of History and so on, my work consists mainly of the following:
- define the purpose of the exhibition: topics covered, objectives, themes, approaches and points of view....

- imagine the route: structure, sequencing, contents, distribution of the collections, modalities of mediation with visitors....

- work with scientists and subject matter experts....
(This is programming, or scripting, an exhibition.)
- work with scenographers & graphic designers who will express this route in a material way, in space - exchange and dialogue for a good adequacy between content and form....
- define each mediation display: synopsis and other specifications for films, sounds, models, manipulations, games, interactives, devices....
- monitor the realisation of these supports....
- write the texts, ensure translations, proofread the proofs...
- and, of course, during all this time, establish budgets & schedules, and keep them....

The temporary or permanent exhibitions in which I have participated can be found in the references section. The way I work is explained in this chapter.

Sometimes I am commissioned as curator, general project manager, which means directing the whole project in addition to museography; sometimes I am just the responsible of the museography. Sometimes my work is a direct service to a client - usually public. Sometimes I am working in a team of architecture, scenography and museography - this team working for a client.

I am freelance working for more than 25 years, after having been the exhibition curator, or exhibition project manager, at the Cité des Sciences of La Villette, in Paris, managing there two large temporary exhibitions (2 500 m2 "Vine and Wine", and 1 300 m2 "The repaired man").

My education is generalist, with the following studies:

- Master and Advanced Studies, in Fundamental and Applied Mathematics,

- Master of Applied Economy, in Paris Universities,

&

- Institute of Political studies of Paris (Sciences-Po).

I was born on May 31, 1954, 69 years old.

Martine Thomas-Bourgneuf

* Museology or museography... the vocabulary is not fixed, it is not the same in Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec... and in France, it even varies from one museum to another. In any case, I'm not a scenographer!