The Grande Galerie de l'Évolution of the National Museum of Natural History in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris was inaugurated on 21 June 1994 by President François Mittetrand. This was the outcome of five years of effort devoted to reflection and design.
Le 21 juin 1994, François Mitterrand, président de la République française, inaugurait la Grande Galerie de l'évolution du Museum national d'histoire naturelle, à Paris. C'était alors l'aboutissement d'un travail de réflexion et de conception qui s'était prolongé cinq ans durant. Jacques Maigret, conservateur à la Grande Galerie, est océanographe et biologiste des pêches. Après une carrière de chercheur en Afrique de l'Ouest, où il a occupé les fonctions de conservateur du Musée de la mer de Gorée, à Dakar, Sénégal, il a été directeur de l'Aquarium du Musée océanographique de Monaco. En 1990, il rejoint l'équipe chargée de la conception muséologique de la future Grande Galerie de l'évolution. A l'ouverture de celle‐ci, il prend en charge le service Conservation et Collections.
Museums of Natural Sciences : Science or Art ? Museums of Natural Sciences found their origins in the old Wunderkammern. From its creation in 1635 as a royal collection, the National Museum in Paris was a centre of close relationship between sciences and artists, those at least who found their sources of inspiration in Nature. On the other hand, scientists needed artists to draw Nature and keep traces of what they were studying. If, to-day, we chiefly give these images an artistic and historical value, at the time, they were considered as truly scientific references. From 1960, a gap widened between the scientist and the artist who no longer needed museums to approach Nature. Artistic concepts have changed and, to-day, artists are asked to interpret their own visions. From that time, sciences and culture went their separate ways. We are at the heart of the debate between the museology of objects and the museology of ideas which is going to affect the museal community for many years. The message supported must be “ civic ” and take into account the social necessities so that the result of research may help to understand the stakes of development. The renovation of the Great Gallery in the Paris Museum worked as a catalyser of these ideas. By placing the visitor in a position of leisure, we may hope to make him realize what is at stake in sciences
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