About us

MUMONS, Science, Art and Curiosities 

On the corner of Place du Parc and Rue du Rossignol is the former chapel of the Visitandines*. This is where the University of Mons has opened its museum, and it’s the place to be if you want to have fun!  

Science, Arts & Curiosities: that’s what you’ll find when you walk through the doors of MUMONS.  What do you mean “too vague a description”?  Let us explain.   

Did you know that one of the main roles of a museum is to showcase its collections?  The University, for example, has hundreds of thousands of precious books, maps and plans, works of art, old scientific instruments and a host of other objects, all linked to its history and its many activities! From the Gutenberg Bible to the Nokia 3310, we keep almost everything!  Then, depending on our events and their different themes, we put them on display.   

And then… what would science and the arts be without our curiosity?  Ask yourself that question!  What would a museum be without a visitor, a book without a reader?  What would the world be like without questioning, experimenting, researching and learning?    

MUMONS is just that!  A constant exchange between you and us: debates, questions, discussions, research and constant curiosity about the world around us.  

Our mission is to give you the keys to understanding the world. 

*Keep an eye out for the different locations for our activities, as MUMONS is always on the move and likes to create improbable experiences in the most unexpected places!   

Three teams for one museum!      

Yes, behind MUMONS, the University of Mons museum, there are three very different teams working in perfect synergy!   

There is the MUMONS team itself, which manages the museum and the exhibitions. It promotes the collections. It also organises the many cultural and popular science activities, both within the museum and outside. Remember Foucault’s pendulum? That was them.  The conferences, science films, science cafés and Printemps des Sciences?  That’s them too!   

But if the MUMONS team is fortunate enough to be able to showcase the University’s fine collections, it’s because another UMONS team, the Archives and Collections Department, made up of multi-talented historians, manages and studies the University’s heritage on a daily basis: old books, maps and plans, iconography, scientific instruments, teaching aids, mineral collections, insect collections, and so on.   

But behind the museum and its many activities, there’s a third team, the one that keeps the various cogs turning! Fortunately, the friends at Extension UMONS are there to help us bring our – often slightly crazy – projects to fruition. UMONS Extension provides expertise in graphic design, technical aspects, administrative support and many other things.