https://www.change.org/p/sauvons-le-palais-de-la-d%C3%A9couverte
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_de_la_D%C3%A9couverte
The Palais de la Découverte (French pronunciation: [palɛ də la dekuvɛʁt], lit. 'Discovery Palace') is a science museum located in the Grand Palais, in the 8th arrondissement on Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, Paris, France. It is open daily except Monday; an admission fee is charged.
The museum was created in 1937 by Jean Baptiste Perrin (awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1926) during an international exhibition on "Arts and techniques in modern life". In 1938, the French government decided to convert the facility into a new museum, which now occupies 25,000 square metres within the west wing of the Grand Palais (Palais d'Antin) built for the Exposition Universelle (1900) to designs by architect Albert-Félix-Théophile Thomas. On January 9, 1940, a new decree linked museum, this time to the University of Paris.[1]
The Palais de la découverte is under threat
Petition on the initiative of the employees of Universcience (Palais de la découverte & Cité des sciences et de l'industrie)
Hair standing on end, sparks at fingertips, a coin levitating above a piece of ice... these are just some of the memorable experiences that many visitors, young and old, have had at the Palais de la découverte, the science museum that has been housed in the Grand Palais since 1937. Many of them have fond memories of the experience, while others recall that their scientific vocation was born there.
Will others be so lucky in the future? The doubt seemed unimaginable just a year ago. Teams from Universcience, as well as scientific commissioners, experts, numerous external service providers, have been working for five years to reopen the Palais de la découverte, and significant budgets have already been spent. But the question of its future has now been raised, particularly since the Council of Ministers on 12 June ‘terminated the duties’ of Universcience's chairman, Bruno Maquart, without any reason being given. On the same day, the Minister for Culture, Rachida Dati, made some worrying comments about the future of the Palais de la découverte in Le Figaro.
This follows a series of alarming announcements over the last few months: reduction in the surface area allocated to the Palais de la découverte within the Grand Palais (October 2024); abrupt denial by the Ministry for Culture concerning the pre-opening (March 2025); statements by the President of the Grand Palais, Didier Fusillier, suggesting moving the Palais de la découverte to the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie; announcement in Le Parisien, by the Ministry for Culture, of the launch of a mission to examine ‘the economic model and building footprint of Universcience’ (June 2025).
Why should we care? Quite simply, the Palais is a key venue for transmitting knowledge to a broad public (with an average of 80% of visitors from outside Paris). It has unique expertise in the promotion of science by the science explainers, those whom Nobel Prize-winning physicist Pierre-Gilles de Gennes called ‘experimenters’ in 1982: the living embodiment of science in the public eye.
The Palais de la découverte and the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie have two different vocations: at the Palais, the fundamentals of science and research in progress; at the Cité, the approach to science and society, and technical and industrial applications. Two essential and complementary pillars of scientific culture! In short, these two museums have their own identities, and to bring them together on the pretext that they both present ‘science’ would be as absurd as confusing the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou.
Evicting the Palais de la découverte from the Grand Palais would condemn it to disappear.
That is why we, the staff of Universcience, are calling on researchers, friends and cultural professionals (scientific and otherwise), teachers, partners, sponsors, artistic and technical service providers, visitors, everyone to sign this petition. We are asking the institution's supervisory bodies - the Ministry for Higher Education and Research and the Ministry for Culture - to confirm as soon as possible their commitment to the reopening of the Palais de la découverte at the Palais d'Antin, in the Grand Palais.
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