Art helps to open children’s hearts to the world, and inspires them to be creative and explorative. To introduce them you don’t have to wait until the perfect day when you will be an expert in Art history (thanks to our Parent’s Guide to the Best Podcasts on Art History in French) to encourage your children to dive into the topic on their own. With the help of our list of captivating art history podcasts, they can use their love of storytelling to discover, see more and feel more.
Take off your children’s training wheels and let them go, they are already prepared to explore Greek mythology, classic works, and famous museums (“look, don’t touch!”). The only things even more entertaining than these programs are EFBA’s museum activities, available in person and online. Enjoy our collection of Children’s Art History Podcasts in French as an entertaining free education tool. We hope they please your entire household and help your family speak French!
“Tower of Pisa,” Italy
Co-produced with France Inter: an exciting and fully immersive podcast for children ages 6 to 12 (levels A2-B1 [i]) and families, on the great classics of the Louvre (theft of the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, etc.) and the great figures of history.
“Failles temporelles en série”
From the Musée du Moyen-Âge de Cluny – Audience : from 8 to 107 years old, level B1. The museum tells us in a humorous tone some of the works of its museum, and we love it! While these podcasts can be listened to while physically wandering through the rooms, you can also visualize the images of the works in question by clicking on the links above each video.
“Promenades imaginaires au Musée d’Orsay”
Audience: from 6 years old, levels A2-B1. Have you ever dreamed of being sucked into a work of art? The Musée d’Orsay imagines stories around the scenes represented in thirteen works and offers us stories that are full of sensation and immersion. We like to listen to them while looking at the work in question, but you can also close your eyes and let yourself be transported..
Audience: 8-12 years, level B1. Episodes of less than 4 minutes take children on a journey through stories imagined by youth author Simon Boulerice based on five works of art from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Displayed at Silverado Vineyards
Janet Sobel, Exposition “Elles font l’abstraction,” Georges Pompidou Center (July 2021)
Fantômes au musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
Written by Fanny Gordon – Audience: 7-13 years old, level B1. Embark on funny adventures alongside two “elite spectrus agents” and the ghost of Sister Alix for a crazy mission: to find the spirits hiding in some of the museum’s works. The format is reminiscent of the “Failles temporelles en série” of the Cluny Museum; the podcast is intended to be listened to during a physical visit to the museum, but it is possible to be transported into the story by closing your eyes or by visualizing the works through an Internet search or by virtually visiting the place.
Greek Mythology
To understand art history, you need to know how to decode the characters and situations depicted in the works. The “Mythes et légendes” de Marc Jer podcast is great for a novice audience of 6 to 10 year olds (and to review, in passing). Another one we recommend: 12 episodes to learn about the most famous stories from Greek mythology from the Kodomo studio. We saved the best for last: Mythosaga. More than 50 episodes narrated by storyteller Julien Tauber. Created during the quarantine, these podcasts will transport the whole family into the sagas of the great myths.
“My museum of the third millennium will always be original, it can always surprise” thought Umberto Eco.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this list of best Children’s Art History Podcasts in French. If you missed the first part of this series, please be sure to read it: “Parent’s Guide to the Best Podcasts in on Art History in French.” Do you have other podcast suggestions you would like to share? Contact us at info@efba.us and we will add them below.
Written by Gabrielle Durana and Julia Peillon and translated from French by Noémie Larzul
“I don’t like museums much. […] I find myself in a tumult of frozen creatures, each of which demands, without obtaining, the inexistence of all the others […] This onset of independent and inimical marvels, and the more inimical the more they resemble one another, is paradoxical. […] The ear could not bear ten orchestras playing at once. The spirit cannot follow many distinct operations, there are no simultaneous arguments. But here the eye […] as soon as it perceives, finds itself obliged to admit a portrait and a seascape, a kitchen and a triumph, and characters in states and dimensions most dissimilar, and not just this, it must also embrace in the same glance harmonies and methods of painting that elude comparison with one another […] productions that devour one another. “
Paul Valéry « Le problème des musées » In Oeuvres, Paris, Pléiade, pp. 290ss.
[i] The levels are based on the Cadre Européen Commun de Référence des Langues.
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