A living place, not an exhibition hall.
Art connects us, creating sets us free.
What happens here
People create. People express themselves. People meet others, share, and become part of a community.
There is no programme to follow, no required skill, no work to produce. Some paint, others draw, write, tinker, or simply come and sit and watch. Every one of these ways of being here is equally right.
What it is not
The Living Museum Neuchâtel is not a museum: you do not come here first to look at works. Pieces made here may occasionally be shown, but exhibition is neither the function nor the promise of the place.
Nor is it an art therapy studio. The Living Museum philosophy is broader: it places the person, the artist, the freedom to create and the community at its centre.
The three pillars
Agency through art
Creating makes you an author of your own life. It opens up choices where none seemed left.
A caring community
Against isolation, bonds that last: people recognise you, expect you, and you come back.
A safe space, free of pressure
No result is expected. That is precisely what makes creating possible.
A movement born in 1983
The first Living Museum was founded in 1983 at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in New York, by Janos Marton and Bolek Greczynski. The first European Living Museum opened in Wil, Switzerland, in 2002.
The Living Museum Society places this philosophy within an international movement where art and creative expression support agency, personal transformation and mental health. The approach was presented at a World Health Organization conference in 2016.
The Living Museum Neuchâtel is the 50th Living Museum in the world, and the first in French-speaking Switzerland.