Frédéric Jousset

As a five year-old boy, Frederic Jousset could be found on family vacations in Saint Malo, Brittany, enthusiastically learning how to sail on an Optimist. Back home in Paris, where his mother was Chief Curator at the Centre Pompidou, he would redirect that same youthful enthusiasm to the arts world. Both became passions that would go on to shape his life.

Sailing, arguably, took on a bigger role in Jousset’s formative years. He spent hours on the water throughout his time at HEC Paris business school – eventually joining the university sailing team. “We did a series of French regattas and then I became a skipper, taking friends for cruises in the Med,” he explains. Much later in life, he would sail with legends like Loïck Peyron and Ernesto Bertarelli, embracing hardcore racing.

“I see myself as an adrenaline junkie,” says Jousset, “I need that shot.” These days he also races cars, scuba dives and climbs mountains to scratch that itch. “I like anything that gives you the feeling that you are living on the edge. I also like the competition – trying to do my best and be faster than everyone else – that’s a winning combination.”

In fact, it was mountain climbing that indirectly led him to the idea of launching Art Explora, a foundation dedicated to making art accessible for all. “When I was coming down from Everest, I had this epiphany,” he explains. “I wanted to embrace the art world and dedicate all my resources to it.” Jousset had already been collecting for years, having amassed a wealth of artistic knowledge and contacts through his mother, and was even a patron of the Louvre, donating 1 million euros in his mid 30s after achieving great success in his business life.

“Something that struck me over time was that people donate to museums to enrich the collections – but the problem isn’t the richness of the artworks at the Louvre, because only 10% of them are exhibited, 90% sit idle in the reserves. The problem is more the concentration of the audience – they are not diverse enough,” Jousset explains. “Where you live and who you are born to dictates your appetite for art.”

His goal for the Art Explora foundation was born out of that simple revelation. “I decided that my mission would be to try to enlarge the audiences of the art world and to reach out to people who didn’t have opportunities like me in their early childhoods.” The foundation would have many strings to its bow, from hosting artist’s residencies to distributing digital art in hospitals, but his masterstroke vision of building a boat to help achieve all of this came to him in the middle of the night, while sailing across the Strait of Sicily. “I knew that people were fascinated by boats, so I knew that if I could build a boat big enough and beautiful enough, people would come to it just out of curiosity. It would be the perfect way to catch people who would never usually go to museums.”

A five-year journey to build the perfect yacht for this purpose began in earnest. “It had to be a sailing boat because you don’t want to be detrimental to one cause for the sake of another,” he explains. “The environment is just as important.” Then, it had to be capable of welcoming thousands of people a day and getting into smaller harbours. A catamaran was the obvious answer. Jousset decided to build the yacht he would go on to name ArtExplorer to 47.5m, both so that it was capable of hosting large crowds, but also because he recognised it would have publicity appeal.

At the Monaco Yacht Show last year, Jousset finally stepped on board this boat that had once been a mere middle-of-the-night idea. “I had tears in my eyes,” he says. “It exceeded all of my expectations.” Another highlight came in Marseille, when the chairwoman of the Louvre christened the yacht by breaking the traditional bottle of champagne on the hull. “That symbolic transmission from one museum to another was very special to me,” he recalls.

So what is the experience of viewing art on board a superyacht actually like in practice? “People are immersed in a movie telling the story of how women have been represented in the arts over time,” explains Jousset. On the flybridge they listen to a 12 minute soundtrack blending traditional dances, holy songs and other music. And the yacht is just one part of it. “Yes, we have ArtExplorer, but we also build a whole village around the boat,” says Jousset. “At every destination, we set up a VR experience, an arts and culture pavilion, a photography pavilion and a central stage for performances and events. It’s about making art cool and not something boring that you have to learn. Plus, everything is free.”

So far, ArtExplorer is striking a chord among communities who may never have had access or even the inclination to explore art of this nature, with ten of thousands of visitors showing up in every destination the boat visits. And this is just the beginning. The boat is now on a two and a half year voyage around the Mediterranean, with 16 stops planned, from Athens to Algiers and beyond. Jousset is delighted with the foundation’s progress so far, as he deserves to be. “Art makes us better people,” he says. “It develops our curiosity and brings people together. So, if people don’t go to museums, we’ll bring the museums to them.”

Frederic Jousset was one of three recipients of a Bowsprit award at the 2024 edition of The Honours, organised by The Superyacht Life Foundation and the Monaco Yacht Show, which seeks to recognise the exceptional and inspiring people of the superyacht industry who are inspiring change in the industry and beyond.