From September 2007, the Natural History Museum of Lille, together with artconnexion, worked in close partnership with the Foundation for Industrial Monuments and Cultural History (Dortmund, Germany), the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice (Poland), and the Institute for the Ecology of Industrial Regions in Katowice, as part of a European Culture project. The regions where these partner institutions are located, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Ruhr, and Silesia, are all linked by a common geological history, intense industrial development, a common mining culture, and shared questions about the mining heritage.

Called C.O.A.L (from Carboniferous to Open-eyed Artists on Landscape), this project enabled 18 artists to discover the landscape of these mining regions and then to create an exhibition using different forms of artistic expression.

After short periods of residency in each mining area, from November 2007 to January 2008, the artists created works that were presented successively in the three partner regions.

For the presentation of the exhibition in Nord-Pas-Calais, the Lille Museum of Natural History worked in close partnership with artconnexion, the Centre d'Arts plastiques et visuels de la Ville de Lille and Culture Commune, Scène Nationale du Bassin Minier du Pas-de-Calais.