Maison Jean Vilar (the place to remember the Festival d'Avignon)

The Maison Jean Vilar is a place for remembering, transmitting and inventing the work of Jean Vilar and popular theater. Jean Vilar passed away in 1971. It immediately seemed necessary to collect documents relating to his work, those of the Théâtre National Populaire when he was its director (1951-63), and those of the Avignon Festival as a whole, which he created in 1947. On the initiative of Paul Puaux, his closest collaborator and successor as director of the Festival d'Avignon (1971-79), the Association Jean Vilar was founded in 1972. A joint effort by the Association, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the City of Avignon led to the certainty of the importance of a house dedicated to Jean Vilar and to reflection on today's world of the performing arts. In 1979, with the city's acquisition of the Hôtel de Crochans, the Maison Jean Vilar became a place for exhibitions, archives and research, as well as a venue for meetings and events in keeping with the spirit of popular theater today. This project is part of a quadripartite agreement between the City of Avignon, the French Ministry of Culture, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Association Jean Vilar.

The Maison Jean Vilar, the permanent exhibition ‘The Keys to the Avignon Festival’

Museums & Monuments included in the Pass

Come and discover an essential part of Avignon's history through an original exhibition dedicated to its internationally renowned Festival !

 

In an immersive journey of images, documents and exceptional treasures, discover the great adventure of the Festival d'Avignon from its origins to the present day, from its fundamentals to the works and artists who have marked its history. 

Physical disability

Most of the exhibition spaces at Maison Jean Vilar are accessible to people with reduced mobility

Horaires d'ouverture

  • Outside the Avignon Festival and August: Tuesday to Saturday, 2pm to 6pm.
  • During the Avignon Festival: every day, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
  • In August: Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Closed on Mondays and Sundays, from 8 June to 3 July, on 26 and 27 July, 1 November, 11 November and from 25 December to 1 January inclusive.

Stroller
Disabled
Public price
Plein : €7.00
Price with the pass
Plein : Free
Permanent exhibition "Les clés du festival"

From 5 Jul 2025 to 31 Dec 2030

Free

Discover the great adventure of the Avignon Festival!

With the exhibition Les Clés du Festival, go all year long to discover this great collective adventure through an immersive journey in the heart of the archives of the Maison Jean Vilar and the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Photographs, films, sound recordings, posters, programs, notes and unpublished correspondences, iconic decorations, original drawings, models and legendary costumes!

This exhibition invites you to the heart of the creations that made the great hours of the Festival: from Jean Vilar's Prince of Homburg to Peter Brook's Mahabharata, Thomas Jolly's Thyeste to Saigon by Caroline Guiela Nguyen, Thomas Ostermeier's creations, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Rébecca Chaillon and d'Angelica Liddell.

8, rue de Mons
84000 Avignon