Foyers artistiques reveals the sensitive, lesser-seen side of the Mining Basin. Behind the uniform facades of the miners’ houses, behind lives shaped by labor, singular trajectories emerge. Some workers — such as Augustin Lesage, Fleury Joseph Crépin, or Rémy Callot — turned their living environment into the very framework of their artistic practice. Painting in the kitchen, decorating the garden with ceramics, writing poetry in the Picard language… each creative gesture asserts an irreducible individuality. Their concerns, deeply universal in nature, resonate with those of contemporary artists who extend their momentum and reactivate their legacy.

From the Red Pavilion to the model homes and into the gardens, the exhibition trail reinstates these works within their original territory and affirms the Mining Basin as a major center of outsider art.

A new mural by Hugo Capron, inspired by the history and visual techniques of the Mining Basin’s spiritist worker-painters, will be unveiled at the opening on May 23, 2026.