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1. Cultural policy system

France

This chapter describes the scope of a country’s cultural policy system, including the objectives of policies, the developments over the years and the relationship between the different levels of government.

+1.1. Objectives, main features and background

Last update: November, 2016

The Ministry in charge of cultural policies in France is currently called the Ministry of Culture and Communication, also referred here to as the "Ministry of Culture". A specific Committee was set up in 1993 to work on the history of the Ministry: Comité d'histoire du ministère de la Culture. It is composed of researchers, experts and officers of cultural policies, and organises different events to promote and disseminate historical knowledge on cultural policies. The Committee also produces numerous publications.

Paris, Tour Eiffel The history of cultural policies in France is marked by the central role of the State, long before the installation of the Republic:

the adoption of French as the national language (1539);
the promotion and organisation:
of knowledge and research: Collège de France 1530, Royal Library initated in 1368 and concretely set up from the XVe century, then the National Library (creation of registration of copyright in 1537 and first opening to the public in 1692), Académie française 1634;
of the visual and performing arts (Comédie-Française 1680, the Louvre Museum 1793), patronage (subsidies and commissions to artists);
and the gradual creation of administrative structures and funds (creation of the Fine Arts Secretariat in the 19^th century and the establishment of a Ministry specifically dedicated to cultural affairs in July 1959).

André Malraux, a renowned intellectual and humanist and a fried of général de Gaulle, was the first Minister of Culture in France. He wrote the decree that outlined the role of the first ministry: "the ministry in charge of cultural affairs has the role of making available capital works from humanity, and initially from France, to the greatest possible number of French people, of ensuring the largest audience for our cultural heritage, and of supporting the creation of the spirit and works of art which enrich it" (Decree n° 59-889, known as the "founding decree", of 24 July 1959). This decree opened the path for its successors in the areas of heritage protection, contemporary creation, distribution and education, devolution of the administration and regulation of the cultural industries.

This Ministry of Cultural Affairs was constituted from the existing directorates of the Ministry of Education (service des Beaux-Arts) and the Ministry of Industry (the National Film Centre). The new administration's primary aims were to promote contemporary creation in all artistic disciplines and a broader participation in cultural activities, especially in the areas of theatre, music and heritage. André Malraux wanted to set up an Art Centre (Maison de la Culture) in every French département (France is geographically divided into 96 counties called département), in order to stimulate contemporary artistic creation and disseminate culture on a broad scale. 9 Maisons de la Culture were eventually set up. In order to foster the déconcentration of the State administration, three regional directorates of cultural affairs were set up in 1969 (directions régionales des affaires culturelles).

Jacques Duhamel (1971-1973) carried out an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental crosscutting policy that aimed at integrating culture into society and responded to the emergence in those times of the issue of cultural development. He set up procedures to establish partnership contracts between the government and cultural institutions (television, cinema industry, theatre companies). The Fonds d'intervention culturelle (FIC) was created in order to finance innovative partnerships with other ministries. In the field of visual arts, the 1% system (where 1% of the construction costs of a new public building must be used to commission an art work for that same building) was extended to include all existing public buildings.

While continuing to follow the policy lines initiated by André Malraux and Jacques Duhamel, the following six ministers introduced their own changes. In 1974, Michel Guy created a breakthrough for young artists and contemporary art by signing the first in a series of cultural development agreements with municipalities and regions. In 1977, the Georges Pompidou National Centre for Arts and Culture opened and the Museums Finance Act was adopted in 1978; 1980 was declared the Year of National Heritage. In 1981, the election of the President of the Republic, François Mitterrand, launched a new period for cultural policies, carried out by the Minister Jack Lang.

The Ministry's budget was doubled in 1982 and gradually increased to nearly represent 1% of the State budget: increasing from 2.6 billion francs in 1981 to 13.8 billion in 1993. From the 1980s, the Ministry also showed concern for economic issues and the broadcasting industries.

In the context of the first laws of territorial decentralisation in 1982-83, moves towards déconcentration were stepped up with the completion of a network of regional directorates of cultural affairs (DRAC), which collaborated with the local authorities, some of them being newly created (regional councils, départements councils). Several major training institutions were either restored or established: École nationale supérieure de la création industrielle (ENSCI), Institut national du patrimoine (heritage), the two Conservatoires nationaux supérieurs de musique (Paris and Lyon Music Academies) and the École du Louvre, creation of the Institut du monde arabe, (IMA), of the National Centre for Circus Arts and of different resource centres in several fields (music, theatre, street arts…). Arts education in schools was modernised, new disciplines were taught (theatre, cinema, art history…), and a range of schemes were organised to raise the awareness of children about culture, such as arts projects, school visits to the cinema, heritage projects etc. Over a period of 12 years, more than 8 000 jobs were created in the cultural field. Broadly speaking, this period shows a quantitative shift in cultural policy making, with an unprecedented increase in cultural funding and structures and the widening of the ministry's scope of activities. Cultural policy gained popularity and recognition, which the Fête de la Musique (first edition in 1981, official creation in 1983) may symbolise.

François Mitterrand also encouraged a series of major construction policy known as thecultural "Grands Travaux": Arche de la Fraternité-La Défense, the Bastille Opera House, the Grand Louvre, the National Library….

As a result of economic changes and the growth of "home-based" cultural activity, the Ministry began to place more emphasis on the cultural industries (books, records, films, broadcasting) with a view to regulating the market (aid mechanisms for the film industry, price regulations on books, radio broadcasting quotas for French-language music, computer hacking…).

In order to preserve the French linguistic heritage, the law on the use of the French language was adopted in 1994. During the 1990s, the debate on "cultural exception" starts and leads to the international recognition of the necessity to promote and preserve cultural diversity (Unesco Convention in 2005).

The Minister carried out its action in favour of democratisation of culture, based on the promotion of heritage, the development of the performing arts and new technologies. Specific policies were conducted in the disadvantaged districts in city peripheries. The Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy commissioned a report on a "refoundation of cultural policy" (Rigaud Commission). The National Centre of Dance was created.

At the start of the XXI century, the policy follows four main lines:

cultural diversity;
equal access through cultural and artistic education;
State reform and decentralisation of cultural policies; and
intellectual and artistic property, authors’ rights in the context of digital globalisation.

In the sector of audio-visual communication, the aim is to reinforce the government's regulatory function and increase high quality production in France without curbing the dynamism of the private sector. From 2000 to 2002 a sub-secretary of State in charge of Heritage and Decentralisation, M. Michel Duffour, is appointed in the Ministry. Conventions of cultural decentralisation (Protocoles de décentralisation culturelle) are set up and the cultural sector is anticipating the new step in the decentralisation process in France, which takes place in 2003-2004.

In May 2002, in the first government of President Jacque Chirac's second term of office, Jean-Jacques Aillagon was appointed Minister of Culture and Communication. In one of his first interviews, he stated that "The right wing, heedful of modernity, is capable of [implementing] a far-reaching cultural policy". A law renewing the conditions of cultural patronage, associations and foundations was passed in 2003.

In March 2004, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres became Minister. His term was mainly spent tackling the crisis of "intermittents du spectacle" that started in 2003 in particular during the Avigon Theatre Festival. He also worked on the regulation of access to culture with new technologies. In 2005, 9 National Centres of Street Arts were created to support these emerging artistic practices.

In May 2007, after the election of President Nicolas Sarkozy, Christine Albanel was appointed Minister of Culture. She conducted the modernisation of cultural policies in the context of the national programme of revision of public policies (Révision générale des politiques publiques). The organisational chart of the Ministry was reorganised in four general directorates: a general secretariat and three thematic directorates (direction générale des patrimoines [heritage], direction générale de la création artistique [artistic creation], direction générale des médias et des industries culturelles (media and creative industries). The other main areas of responsibility are: the law to protect authors' rights on the internet (loi Création et Internet), the reform of public broadcasting and the Entretiens de Valois, a convention between professionals and main stakeholders of the performing arts sector in order to discuss the evolution of this sector. In 2008, during the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), French authorities launched the European Cultural Season, by inviting the 26 EU partners to showcase the best of their heritage and creative talent during the second half of 2008. In 2009, Ms Albanel supervised the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Ministry of Culture.

Frédéric Mitterrand, a renowned writer, scriptwriter and director for television and cinema, became Minister of Culture in 2009. The following year, the programme "Culture pour chacun" ("Culture for each") was launched in order to foster the cultural participation of every citizen. The previous ministerial priorities were maintained concerning dialogue with the performing arts sector, the protection of authors' rights on the internet or the challenges of digitalisation of cultural practices and participation: installation of a specific public agency to encourage and control compliance with copyright laws on the internet (called Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet, i.e. the High Authority for Transmission of Creative Works and Copyright Protection on the Internet); a law on fixed pricing for digital books; commissioning of the prospective and forecast report "Culture and Media 2030"; and support to the judicial action of the French Publishers Association (Syndicat national des éditeurs) against Google regarding the rights and conditions of book digitalisation.

In 2012, Aurélié Filippetti was the first Minister of Culture appointed following the election of President François Hollande. In a difficult budgetary context, she decided to give up some large-scale expensive projects that had been programmed during the previous legislature. Her main projects are to foster cultural and artistic education, territorial cultural development and to reconsider the issues of cultural exception in the framework of the digital economy. In 2014, the launch of a negotiation to revise the regime of intermittence led to strikes at different festivals, especially summer festivals like Avignon.

In August 2014, Fleur Pellerin, formerly Minister for SME, Innovation and Digital Economy, became the new Minister of Culture in the newly appointed cabinet conducted by Manuel Valls. In 2016 Audrey Azoulay, Councillor for Culture and Communication of the President of the Republic since 2014, replaces her. Since 2012, the Ministry is involved in the preparation of the Law on freedom of creation, architecture and heritage that is promulgated in July 2016 (Loi no 2016-925 du 7 juillet 2016). This is an ambitious legislative act that concerns the different fields of cultural policies. The objective is to protect and guarantee the freedom of creation and to modernise cultural heritage policies. The law occurred in a specific context: the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of January 2015 against the press magazine Charlie Hebdo, and the multiplication of initiatives from local representatives or associations to try and ban the diffusion of some artistic works. Following other terrorist attacks in November 2015 in a Paris concert hall, an emergency fund is set up to support the performing arts enterprises that faced important decrease of attendance levels. In 2016, social partners come to a new agreement on the specific social security regime for temporary and occasional workers in performing arts and audio-visual industries: the intermittents du spectacle. In September the same year the Government set up a national fund to support durable employment in performing arts, the Fonpeps.

During the last fifty years, local and regional authorities form a complementary pole of the increasing public support to culture. The municipalities, owners of certain cultural facilities such as museums, municipal theatres, libraries and music schools, are now the main providers of government funds for culture. Encouraged by the Ministry of Culture and Communication to draw up their own cultural policies, the municipalities, followed by the départements (county councils) and regions (regional councils), have engaged in local public cultural action to a degree far exceeding the obligations laid down in the devolution laws of 1982, 1983 and 1992.

Since the first agreements on theatrical decentralisation at the end of the 1940s, and on through the cultural development charters and agreements in the 1970s and 1980s, a major part of the territorial cultural policy is based on multi-level agreements and partnerships: between the State departments (inter-ministerial agreements), between State departments and territorial authorities, between the different levels of territorial authorities, between State departments and public cultural agencies and institutions. Thus, French cultural policies are conducted in the framework of territorialised cooperative governance, based on agreements and partnerships (see chapter 1.2.6). In 2015, in a context of budget austerity, the Ministry proposed to territorial authorities to agree on “cultural pacts”, in which the State commits to maintain its level of cultural financing to a territorial authority as long as this authority commits to do the same regarding its own cultural budget. Around forty “cultural pacts” has been signed.

Main features of the current cultural policy model

The French cultural policies model is characterised by the substantial action of public authorities. In addition to the legal and regulatory aspects administrated by the State concerning cultural actors, goods, and activities, national, local and regional governments allocate substantial funds to a range of cultural fields. Specialised public service departments administer this action at the different levels.

Equal access to culture for citizens is constitutional: it is incumbent on the State to ensure that all people are potentially able to participate in cultural life. France recognises that culture is an integral part of overall development, including social and economic development, and culture is considered a key factor in ensuring the quality of life and fulfilment of each and every individual.

Moreover, the State conducts language policy in France: advocacy of French (official language of the Republic) and of French-speaking communities (Francophonie), and protection of the languages of France (regional, non-territorial, and sign language).

One of the main objectives of cultural policies is to correct recognised inequalities in the access to culture and cultural institutions due to geographical, economic and social obstacles impeding cultural participation. These policies aim at extending and diversifying audiences, and fostering the development of the widest possible range of cultural and artistic activities in all cultural fields.

Three main lines structure cultural policies in France:

heritage
creation
knowledge transmission and cultural democratisation, in particular via cultural and artistic education.

A crosscutting sovereign assignment is specifically devoted to the State level: legislate, assess and control the public cultural policies. The State interventions in the sectors of communication, press (pluralism) and broadcasting (public channels) particularly illustrate this assignment.

The legitimacy of public intervention is based on the commonly acknowledged fact that, on the one hand, heritage is considered to be a common property to be shared, protected and promoted and, on the other hand, the support and diffusion of cultural and artistic creativity is considered to be a necessity for the community. In these areas, governmental action intends to prevent and correct the risks inherent in the functioning of the market: the concentration, standardisation and removal of cultural products that are not considered to be ordinary marketable commodities.

Moreover, the government has responsibility for artistic and cultural education and training as it has for general education. This takes place either within the school framework (visual arts, music, specialised training in theatre, in film, in the maintenance of cultural heritage), or by means of specialised schools at national or territorial level (academies, etc.), or by associations and popular education (see chapter 5.1).

The Ministry of Culture and Communication is responsible for the implementation of State-governmental cultural action throughout the French territory. Other ministries participate in specific areas of cultural policy (Foreign Affairs, Education, Research, Tourism for instance). Regional and local authorities are also responsible for the implementation of cultural policies in their particular districts (municipal, intermunicipal, county-départment, regional); cultural action carried out by the various public actors overlaps very often and is thus increasingly co-ordinated or carried out jointly, in a contractual or agreement-based framework.

The Ministry of Culture and Communication undertakes action in two ways: regulatory action (in the context of laws passed by Parliament) and direct action by means of public funds allotted to the Ministry in the context of the national budget.

Regulatory action

The Ministry of Culture and Communication is responsible for the implementation and supervision of laws and provisions relating to culture. Legal regulations involve, for example, heritage protection, the duties and the scientific and technical standards of archives and collections, literary and artistic property, artists' welfare, the institution of taxes and fees for certain cultural sectors (cinema, live entertainment, fixed book price), and obligatory production and diffusion quotas (broadcasting quotas).

These regulations do not necessarily imply the commitment of public funds on the part of the government. On the other hand, they could have substantial financial consequences for local and regional authorities and cultural stakeholders (private television networks, owners of cultural heritage goods, etc.).

Regulatory action by the Ministry of Culture and Communication also includes initiatives aimed at endorsing and "labelling" the quality, professionalism and incorporation of certain cultural and artistic activities, or at declaring them as State-approved (general interest).

Direct action

One of the most direct actions of the Ministry of Culture and Communication involves the direct management of public cultural institutions (museums, national theatres, schools of higher education,…), the maintenance and development of public cultural, artistic and historical heritage, artistic commissions and construction, the delegation or allocation of grants to institutions and cultural actors as well as to regional and local authorities for their cultural initiatives.

State intervention in the cultural field endeavours to be open to all artistic and cultural genres, forms and aesthetics. Decisions relating to artistic commissions, allowances, the allocation of government grants, heritage protection, and the recruitment of culture specialists, are usually made with advice from consultative bodies that gather independent specialists and experts recognised in the appropriate fields (see chapter 1.2.5).

The Ministry of Culture and Communication does not hold a monopoly on cultural action, which is also, to a large degree, initiated by the local and regional authorities. Moreover, a large part of State-supported cultural activity is organised by private actors (in the same way as numerous associative structures in the cultural sector).

The role of territorial authorities

France has three main levels of territorial authorities: communes (municipalities), départements (counties) and regions. Some other types of territorial authorities have dispensatory status that can have a certain impact on the cultural policies those authorities conduct (Corsica, overseas territories, metropolises).

France's larger town and city councils have been actively engaged in culture for a long time. Since the 19th century many of them have been administering and funding libraries, museums, theatres and municipal conservatories and subsidising cultural associations and learned societies. Since the 1960s, other much smaller municipalities have also been developing their own – and often ambitious – cultural policies.

The devolution acts of 1982-83 and 2004 have encouraged the cultural actions of the local and regional authorities with the help of the Ministry's regional directorates for cultural affairs (directions régionales des affaires culturelles, DRAC). These laws also transferred responsibilities: public libraries and archive services have been transferred to the départements, regions are responsible for the regional heritage inventory units since 2004 and some authorities could choose to take responsibility for historical monuments located in their territory. In 2014, according to data from the Ministry of Culture, the property of 65 monuments had been devolved to territorial authorities (over the 176 transferable sites): 43 to communes, 16 to départements and 6 to regions.

Spheres of competence

Between the deconcentration of State departments and devolution, cultural policy is based on prevailing co-operation. While the State government has continued to play a substantial role in the public funding of culture, the contribution of territorial authorities has significantly increased and now represents around 50% of overall funding. If we consider the geographical concentration of State funding in the Greater Paris Region (Île-de-France), which is due to the presence of numerous national heritage sites and many national institutions, we find a higher contribution of territorial authorities to cultural expenses away from the region Île-de-France (up to 80% of overall funding in some Regions).

Territorial authorities can take action in all cultural sectors – heritage conservation and presentation, production and diffusion of performing arts, promotion of books and reading, and arts education. In this regard, since the period 1960-1970, a growing number of territories have elected representatives assigned to cultural affairs and have developed increasingly important cultural departments and agencies. The degree to which the municipalities invest in culture is dependent solely on their political will, except in some domains: public archives, which they are obliged to conserve and make accessible to both researchers and the general public; or the general inventory of cultural heritage. The procedures for cultural intervention are subject to the State regulatory authority.

Agreement-based cooperation (see chapter 1.2.6)

Cooperation between the various public and private cultural actors is organised in the framework of a whole range of multi-level agreement procedures between the State services (inter-ministerial agreements), between State services and territorial authorities, between the different territorial authorities, between governmental departments and cultural agencies and institutions: cultural development agreements, the "Ville et Pays d'Art et d'Histoire", "Villes-Cinéma" and "Villes-Arts plastiques" agreements, local arts education contracts, together with the cultural sections of the "City Contracts", the "Major Urban Projects" and the "State-Region Project Contracts", etc. With the increase in their number and their occasional overlapping, these agreements often prove difficult to handle. One example is the Devolution Act of 2004 aimed at clarifying and rationalising the different interventions in the field of artistic education, but its effective application was mitigated.

At the same time, the creation in 2002 of the legal statute of établissement public de coopération culturelle ("public cultural cooperative institution", EPCC) acknowledged this state of generalised contractualisation of cultural policy. This statute facilitates the joint action of several authorities, including the State, to manage and finance important cultural institutions.

Since the first agreements that set up "national dramatic centres" [centre dramatiques nationaux] at the end of the 1940s, a number of towns and cities are partners in national institutions or institutions with a national label, and thus endeavour to follow cultural policies initiated by the State government. However, as they are much closer to the realities of their localities and their inhabitants, local and regional authorities are also endeavouring to increase cultural support in their localities by developing readership and arts education programmes, by supporting cultural events (festivals, etc.) and by protecting and developing heritage. They often provide the only support for cultural associations and amateur and emerging cultural and artistic activities.

Perspectives

There are two emerging major trends that are likely to lead to substantial changes in public support for culture in the years to come: the first is the emergence of "inter-municipal co-operation" which will gradually and unavoidably affect the cultural field. Inter-municipal co-operative structures, known as "intercommunalities", are developing their own cultural policies, showing specific issues and modalities. The second emerging trend is a new step in territorial devolution, within the framework of a reform of territorial authorities that started in 2009. In 2015 the law creates a new form of intercommunal body (around 10 metropolises were created, with special status for Paris, Lyon and Marseille), and in 2016 the regional map modification reduces the number of regions from 27 to 18 (of which 12 mainland regions and Corsica, see chapter 1.2.1). In this context, the State mentioned the possibility to transfer some DRAC (Ministry's Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs) responsibilities to Regions and at the end of 2014 the Ministry of Culture and Region Brittany signed an agreement to allow a broader capacity to the Region in the fields of book, cinema and broadcasting policies. Besides, Corsica, which holds a particular and derogatory regional status, has a specific capacity since 2002 in the fields of culture and communication (cultural policy, development of Corsican language and culture).

Cultural policy objectives

Since the creation of the Ministry in 1959, two mainstream and crosscutting objectives have oriented and motivated the cultural policies conducted in France by the different authorities and governments.

On the one hand, the objective of cultural democratisation, which characterises the policy of the Malraux Ministry and aims at widespread access to a conventional offer that is considered to be representative of high culture, of heritage and artistic excellence: opening of Maisons de la Culture in the 1960s, low or free entrance fees to the national cultural institutions, actions to expand the cultural audiences. For instance in 1963 the Greek tragedy The Persians by Aeschylus was broadcasted on public television at peak viewing time. More recently in 2009 the Ministry of Culture granted free entrance to the permanent collections of national museums and national monuments, for those aged under 26 living in the European Union.

On the other hand, from the 1970s-1980s, this approach that could be considered to be restrictive and sometimes elitist, was complemented by the cultural democracy approach, which expands the content and the consideration of expressions and artistic and cultural requests in all their diversity, with no hierarchical approach: widening of the ministry's scope of activities, support to emerging practices or creative disciplines that could have been previously considered to be "minor art", like street and circus arts, comics, fashion and decorative arts, jazz, "current or non-classical music" [musiques actuelles].

In this context, cultural development refers to the search for balance between these two regimes of cultural policy, with no elitism or demagogy, in order to reconcile high standards and openness.

The first article of the Decree n° 2012-776 of 24 May 2012, which is adapted from the "founding decree" of July 24th 1959 by André Malraux, states the main assignments and missions of the Minister of Culture and Communication:

make the major works of humankind accessible to the maximum number of people, with particular emphasis on French works;
protect and promote all the elements of cultural heritage;
foster the creation of artistic and intellectual works;
favour the development of artistic teaching and practices;
contribute to the development of cultural and artistic education of children and young adults;
encourage the local cultural initiatives, develop the links between State and territorial cultural policies and participate to the devolution policy conducted by the government;
help to develop cultural industries, new technologies for creation and diffusion of cultural heritage, and to promote cultural digital contents and services;
define, coordinate and evaluate the policies for performing and visual arts;
ensure the worldwide influence of French and French-speaking [francophone] arts and culture; and
contribute to the external French cultural policy and to the policies for the French cultural institutional network abroad.

Thus, since its creation, one of the essential missions of the Ministry of Culture and Communication has been to encourage access to and participation in both heritage and the works of contemporary creativity. But the evolution of cultural and socio-economic life has had an impact on the evolution of the objectives of cultural policy: for instance in the 2012 decree that sets the remit of the Ministry of Culture, the question of digital cultural contents and services was added. At the same time, despite such technological developments, the political vision remains focused on reaching new audiences for all forms of cultural expression. That is why audience development appears to be one of the first objectives of cultural policy, and all the recent Ministers have stated that cultural and artistic education is one of their priorities.

1.2. Domestic governance system

+1.2.1. Organisational organigram

Last update: November, 2016

Chart 1: Key actors in public cultural policy making

Sources : Ministry of Culture website (http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr) ; Les collectivités locales en chiffres 2016 (http://www.collectivites-locales.gouv.fr)

* Cultural institutions with national competence (27 in 2016, including 16 national museums): institutions directly attached to the central administration of the Ministry of Culture and Communication. They have functions in the field of management, technical studies, formation, and activities of production of goods or provision of cultural services in national matters. Examples: national archives, research and restoration centres, museums, media libraries and national libraries of architecture and heritage, etc...(complete list on the Ministry website)

** Public institutions of the State (76 in 2016): cultural organisations under the supervision of the State, having their own legal status, as well as administrative and financial autonomy e.g.: national museums, national arts centres, national academies, national art schools, etc... Ex. : Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Académie de France à Rome, Centre des monuments nationaux, Centre national de la cinématographie et de l'image animée, national music academies, national schools of art and architecture (20)…

*** Public Institutions of Inter-municipal Co-operation (EPCI): groupings of municipalities which aim to develop joint projects in various fields. The EPCI's are subjected to common, homogeneous and comparable rules with those of the territorial authorities e.g.: the communautés de communes, the communautés d'agglomération, the communautés urbaines, syndicats intercommunaux, métropoles since 2015

Chart 2: Ministry of Culture and Communication: central directorates and divisions in 2016 (upload it in http://traduction.culture.gouv.fr/url/Result.aspx?to=en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.culture.gouv.fr%2FNous-connaitre%2FOrganisation)

In the framework of the national programme of revision of public policies (Révision générale des politiques publiques), the organisational chart of the Ministry was reorganised in 2010 in four general directorates:

a General Secretariat, which assists the Minister in all the general administrative matters and coordinates crosscutting cultural policies;
a General Directorate of Heritage, constituted from the former Directorate of Museums (DMF), the Directorate of Architecture and Heritage (DAPA) and the Directorate of Archives (DAF);
a General Directorate of Artistic Creation, which gathers the former Directorate of Music, Dance, Theatre and Performing Arts (DMDTS) and Visual Arts Division (DAP); and
a General Directorate of Media and Cultural Industries that defines, coordinates and evaluates the State policy concerning media pluralism and cultural economy (advertising, broadcasting, music and publishing industry), and all the services of digital communication to the public. This Directorate supervises the National Centre of Cinema and Animation (Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée).

In addition:

the General Delegation (Division) of the French Language and Other Languages of France (DGLFLF);
the Minister's cabinet formed by technical councillors;
special ministerial departments and bodies: Committee for the History of the Ministry of Culture and many other advisory commissions (see chapter 1.2.5), including some advisory High Councils: Haut Conseil de l'éducation artistique et culturelle, Conseil national de la culture scientifique, technique et industrielle, Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique;
the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs;
a State Senior Official for Security and Defence;
a State Senior Official for Promotion of Equality between men and women
a State Senior Official for Diversity
a State Senior Official for Sustainable Development
regional offices representing the government at the local level (comprising 13 mainland Regional Directorates and 7 bureaus in overseas territories), which implement national policies adapted to the regional context (including overseas territories), and also include special departments to deal with urbanism, architecture and heritage: the Services territoriaux de l'architecture et du patrimoine;
public bodies (76 in 2016): institutions to which the State has accorded a specific legal status and financial autonomy; public bodies are State-supervised legal entities under public law; and
institutions under national jurisdiction (27 in 2016) including numerous national museums).

+1.2.2. National authorities

Last update: November, 2016

According to the first article of the Constitution, "France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic (…) It shall be organised on a decentralised basis". The President of the Republic is the head of the State. The President is elected for a term of five years by direct universal suffrage. He appoints the Prime Minister, who is responsible for forming the government and whose task it is to define and implement the nation's policies, which are submitted to the people's representatives of the French Parliament, composed of two houses: the National Assembly and the Senate.

Within the government, the Minister of Culture and Communication participates in the preparation and implementation of national policies and is specifically responsible for cultural affairs. The Minister defines the overall priorities and guidelines, exercises political authority over the directorates and other services of the Ministry, and, accordingly, decides how funds are to be distributed between the directorates and oversees their allocation. This distribution is organised in the project of the budget that is presented to the Parliament.

A certain number of other ministries allocate substantial funds to the provision of cultural services: for the education and training of students and for educational museums in the field of history and natural sciences (Ministry of Education and Research); within the framework of public education and animation (Ministry of Health, Youth and Sports), for certain cultural heritage (monuments and museums under the Ministry of Defence), for the export of French culture abroad (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and for scientific and technical culture (Industry, Agriculture), etc.

France is a decentralised State. The country comprises different types of autonomous territorial authorities that have their own directly elected assemblies and governments: regions (regional councils), départements / counties (departmental councils) and communes / cities (municipal councils). They are not answerable to the State and, in compliance with the laws of the Republic, are independent of each other. France's devolution laws define each council's scope of activity.

These devolved authorities set up their own cultural administrations that are the first partner of the Minister's decentralised bodies (DRAC). Territorial authorities also create cultural institutions and organisms to implement their cultural policies: executive agencies for music and dance, regional agencies for performing arts, cultural observatories, etc.

In 1960 several communes associated to create the National Federation of Territorial Authorities for Culture (Fédération nationale des collectivités territoriales pour la culture, FNCC). The FNCC nowadays gathers more than 450 territorial authorities. Moreover, the main syndicates that federate of territorial authorities according to their category (associations des maires de France -AMF-, des départements -ADF- et des régions -ARF-, etc.) set up speicif committees that deal with cultural policies and issues.

In 2003 an interregional platform for cultural development was created to facilitate networking and conducting common policies in the field of performing arts. The General Inspectorate realised a report on the regional agencies for performing arts in 2011 (available online on the ministry's site).

The State central and decentralised services, the devolved administrations and bodies jointly conduct cultural policies in France, in the framework of a cooperative and agreement-based inter-institutional system.

+1.2.3. Regional authorities

+1.2.4. Local authorities

+1.2.5. Main non-governmental actors

Last update: November, 2016

A very large number of associations and other non-governmental organisations operate in the field of arts and culture in France. For instance the coordination of culture and communication federations and associations (Cofac: http://www.cofac.asso.fr) federates more than 40 000 cultural associations. The federal union of cultural structures (Ufisc : http://www.ufisc.org) gathers federations and unions from the performing arts sector.

Even though it is not easy to develop statistics on the associative scene because of its complexity and its diversity, various studies illustrate certain trends:

Associations culturelles & emploi. Premier panorama, 2007 : http://www.opale.asso.fr/IMG/article_PDF/Premier-panorama-statistique-sur-les-associations_a78.pdf;
rapport La France associative en mouvement, 10ème édition 2012 : http://www.recherches-solidarites.org;
étude Repères sur les associations en France, mars 2012 : https://www.menages-prevoyants.fr/documents/124.pdf; and
Panorama de l'économie sociale et solidaire en France, 2012 : http://www.cncres.org
Valérie Deroin, « Emploi, bénévolat et financement des associations culturelles », Culture-Chiffres n° 2014-1

In 2011, one in every five associations was engaged in cultural activity. Of these 267 000 cultural associations, 35 100 employed at least one paid worker, with the rest being supported by a purely voluntary workforce. Cultural associations employ some 169 000 paid workers, representing 9.4% of all paid association employees. Cultural associations employ the equivalent of 189 000 full-time jobs on a voluntary basis. In 2011, the total budget for all cultural associations was calculated at EUR 8.3 billion. In monetary terms, cultural associations are worth more or less the same in terms of jobs as within the associative economy as a whole, i.e. 9.7%. The average cultural association's budget is EUR 31 000, less than half the average association's budget, due to their smaller size.

Cultural associations are less dependent on public finance (40%) than the average (49%). More specifically, they have less access to public procurement and their financing generally comes in the form of subsidies. Municipalities are, more than for the other associative sectors, behind a large proportion of subsidies, particularly for those associations that do not have paid employees. The majority of cultural associations play a major or secondary role in either organising or hosting live entertainment.

In 2012, among the 1.3 million associations in France, we notice the following trends:

23% of the associations that are declared in the Gazette (official journal) from 2009 to 2012 operate in the domain "culture, practice of artistic and cultural activities";
membership of the cultural associations represent 8% of the total of 23 million French people (46% of the population) who are members of an association;
about 12% of the associations that employ staff are cultural associations, and they employ 3.3% of association employees; 96% of the proposed contracts are short-term contracts; and
the reduction in public financing since 2009 particularly impacts the cultural associations (as well as those in the domains of sport and leisure). In 2012, 55% of those in charge of cultural associations considered that the financial situation of their association was difficult (18% found it very difficult).

Besides, numerous advisory or consultative bodies that gather experts, professionals from civil society and administrative personnel, work with the departments of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in all the domains of cultural policy. The annex to the Finance Bill for 2016 lists around 50 bodies of this type in the cultural sector (http://www.performance-publique.budget.gouv.fr/sites/performance_publique/files/farandole/ressources/2016/pap/pdf/jaunes/jaune2016_commissions.pdf). Many committees and commissions also exist at territorial level, to help allocate aids and subsidies, and to define public procurement orders: Regional Funds for Museum Acquisition (Fonds régionaux d'acquisition des musées, FRAM), Regional Funds for Library Acquisition (Fonds régionaux d'acquisition des bibliothèques, FRAB), Regional Funds of Contemporary Art (Fonds régionaux d'art contemporain), advisory committees placed in the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) (experts in music and dance, advisory committee for theatre, committee of heritage and sites, etc.)

+1.2.6. Transversal co-operation

Last update: November, 2016

Co-operation between the Ministry of Culture and Communication and other ministries

Ministries other than the Ministry of Culture and Communication participate directly in public cultural development: Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of Health, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Tourism for instance. A wide range of cultural projects are undertaken by these ministries in the fields of training in the arts; conservation of specialised libraries, national museums, monuments and the historical archives of ministries; and cultural initiatives in specific contexts (jails, hospitals) or abroad. These actions are based on many inter-ministerial agreement protocols that are frequently updated. The protocols can be declined in regional agreement protocols between the DRAC and the other ministerial decentralised body that is involved: Regional Directorates for Health and Social Affairs, Education and Research Regional Directorate (rectorats d'académie), etc.

The Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Culture have long been used to collaborating: joint definition of the contents and programmes of cultural and artistic teaching and training, joint financing of cultural actions (cultural classes or activities for pupils), annual plan covering art and culture in schools, such as the Lang-Tasca Plan in 2000-2005. A High Council, the Haut Conseil de l'éducation artistique et culturelle, created in 2005, is co-chaired by the Minister of Culture and the Minister of Education. The objectives of this advisory board are, in particular, to foster digital practices (in terms of access to knowledge, social cohesion through culture and the arts, cultural diversity, cooperative policies with territorial authorities, amateur artistic practices), to promote the Europe of cultures especially for youth, and to support special education services for disabled people. Since 2014, a reform of the school curriculum introduced more extracurricular activities, including cultural activities.

The draft agreement signed in 2001 between the Minister of Culture and the Minister of Youth asserts "the common investment of the two ministries in favour of governmental support for arts activities, [and their engagement to] harmoniously develop educational projects that bring art and culture to children and young people", especially within the framework of popular education schemes and the national network of the Centres of Youth and Culture (Maisons des jeunes et de la culture, MJC) (see chapter 6.4).

The Ministry of Culture is the natural partner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of its main executive body for French cultural policy abroad, the French Institute (Institut français) (cf. chapter 1.4). Four representatives of the Ministry of Culture sit on the board of directors of the French Institute, and five representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (two representatives of the Ministry of Education, and one of the Ministry of Higher Education, also sit on this board). The collaboration is diverse and concerns for example the organisation of cultural years or seasons, which honour and promote everywhere in France, the culture of a foreign country: Croatia in 2012, South Africa in 2013 for example (see chapter 1.4.2).

In 1997, the Ministry of Culture co-signed, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement (Convention France-UNESCO, CFU), which allows France to give UNESCO and its members technical and financial support. Over the last 15 years around 100 projects have operated in more than 50 countries worldwide.

Depuis une vingtaine d'années des conventions sont signées entre le ministère de la Culture et de l'Agriculture pour l'éducation socioculturelle dans les établissements de l'enseignement agricole. La convention «Alimentation, Agri-Culture», signée en 2011, met l'accent sur la valorisation et la transmission du patrimoine gastronomique et des traditions culinaires de France. Des conventions ont été signées avec les ministères chargés du Tourisme, de la Santé (pour la culture à l'hôpital) de la Justice (le développement culturel en milieu carcéral), ou encore avec le Centre national de la recherche scientifique (accord-cadre 2012-2015 pour mener une politique concertée dans des domaines de recherche communs).

From about 20 years the Ministries of Culture and Agriculture have developed agreements for socio-cultural education in agricultural schools and institutes. The agreement Alimentation, Agri-Culture signed in 2011 promotes the transmission of gastronomic heritage and traditions. An agreement 2012-2015 with the National Centre for Scientific Research aims at cooperation in shared research fields.

Co-operation between the Ministry of Culture and territorial authorities

The Ministry of Culture and Communication controls and supervises certain cultural activities of the local and regional authorities: conservation of archives, scientific and technical inspection of museums and libraries, and the pedagogic inspection of cultural and arts training institutions (music schools, art colleges and academies…). At the same time, territorial authorities have great freedom to implement their cultural policies, within the laws of the decentralised Republic, and they exercise no supervision or hierarchy between themselves.

The national cultural policy involves a joint, cooperative and co-funded action between the State and territorial authorities: agreements on theatrical decentralisation at the end of the 1940s, co-management by the State and cities of the Maisons de la Culture ("Houses of Culture") in the 1960s, cultural development charters and agreements in the 1970s and 1980s in order to achieve a well-balanced distribution of the cultural offer on territories and to facilitate audience access to culture. More than 1200 agreements were signed with around 600 authorities in the 1980s.

Specific cooperative measures and devices were set up: two funds – the Regional Funds for Museum Acquisition (Fonds régionaux d'acquisition des musées, FRAM) and the Regional Funds for Library Acquisition (Fonds régionaux d'acquisition des bibliothèques, FRAB), are supported on an equal basis by the Ministry of Culture and Communication and the regions. These funds are intended for the acquisition of art works and the enlargement of the collections of museums and libraries under the control of local and regional authorities. In the 1980s, the Fonds régionaux d'art contemporain (FRAC) was established along the same lines to assemble contemporary art collections in each region and to carry out awareness-raising and dissemination activities in the sphere of contemporary art. Some FRAC developed a peculiar identity and became the main poles for contemporary art in a region, such as in Picardie or Pays-de-Loire. Other specific cooperative agreements and contracts between the Ministry of Culture and the local and regional authorities include:

"cultural development agreements" – which have the broadest scope – support the definition and implementation of local cultural projects;
"villes d'art" and "villes et pays d'art et d'histoire" agreements that cover cultural tourism and promotion of heritage;
agreements on the heritage inventory and ethnology of a particular place; and
"ville-architecture", "ville-lecture" (books), "ville-cinéma" agreements that support cultural development in the covered fields.

In 2015, in a context of budget austerity, the Ministry proposed to territorial authorities to agree on “cultural pacts”, in which the State commits to maintain its level of cultural financing to a territorial authority as long as this authority commits to do the same regarding its own cultural budget. Around forty “cultural pacts” has been signed.

The Council of Territorial Authorities for Cultural Development (Conseil des collectivités territoriales pour le développement culturel, CCTDC) was set up in 1999, to formulate "views and propositions on any question of territorial cultural development, within the framework of the partnerships between the Ministry of Culture and territorial authorities" (art. 2 of the Ministerial Decree of October 7th 1999). Although this Council has been relatively inactive for periods, the Ministry has decided since 2012 to reactivate its activity, in particular in the context of territorial reform that could announce a new step in cultural decentralisation. In 2014 the Ministry of Culture and Region Brittany signed an agreement to allow a broader capacity to the Region in the fields of book, cinema and broadcasting policies. Besides, Corsica, which holds a particular and derogatory regional status, has a specific capacity since 2002 in the fields of culture and communication (cultural policy, development of Corsican language and culture).

There are also broader partnerships and contractual frameworks (not specifically cultural) involving the State departments and the local and regional authorities, such as the State-region project contracts (contrats de projets État-région) and the urban policy contracts. The State-region project contracts define the priorities for joint investment over a period of 7 years, and are aimed at the economic, social and cultural development of the regions. The urban policy contracts (contrats de ville, contrats urbains de cohésion sociale, quartiers prioritaires)define an overall group of joint initiatives between the different ministries and municipal councils that encounter economic, social or urban problems. The Ministry in charge of cities and urban planning conducts them, with the assistance of an interministerial committee for the cities. These regional and urban contracts frequently include cultural strands covering, for example, art teaching, vocational training, and regional cultural development and cultural infrastructure planning. The operational programmes that organise the distribution of structural funds from the regional policy of the European Union also constitute cooperation frameworks between State and territorial authorities, which allow the financing of cultural activities and projects.

Thus, various State and sub-State actors engage in partnerships to co-fund and jointly support numerous cultural institutions, initiatives and facilities that are distributed on the whole territory, like for instance: regional or departmental associations for the development of music and choreography (and occasionally drama); music and dance institutes and teacher training centres; contemporary arts centres; cultural exchange centres; national theatres; regional opera houses and orchestras; regional agencies for books and literature; heritage restoration centres; festivals…. Many of these institutions benefit from a State branding label and / or are part of a national network. The level of commitment of the different public actors varies according to the nature of each structure and can also vary between structures of a similar type.

Moreover, even if the "partnership offer" was first a State initiative, the State is no longer the only "supplier" of partnership. The cooperative and agreement-based partnership has become a widespread policy procedure. Since 1999, the laws on inter-communal cooperation and territorial planning and development (dated 25 June 1999 and 12 July 1999) led to the creation of new "Public Inter-communal Cooperation Institutions" (Établissements Publics de Coopération Intercommunale, EPCI) – commonly known as "intercommunalities" – that constitute new local bodies that can conduct a cultural policy that supplements and improves the cultural offer of the municipalities / communes. Therefore, an inter-communal cultural policy progressively emerged in certain domains: public reading and libraries, artistic teaching, and performing arts for instance.

Regions, départements, communes and inter-communalities also cooperate among themselves in some frameworks, devices and themes: for instance, territorial cultural projects in region Midi-Pyrénées (projets culturels de territoire), sustainable development contracts (contrats de développement durable) and XXe Century Memory programme (Mémoire du XXe) in the region Rhône-Alpes.

In 2002, the creation of the status of Cooperative Cultural Public Institution (Établissement public de coopération culturelle, EPCC) gave recognition to the system of multi-level cooperative and agreement-based governance that characterises public cultural policy in France. This status facilitates the association of different territorial authorities, and also the State bodies, to jointly finance and manage important cultural institutions. Around 40 EPCC have been created in 10 years: for instance, the "House of Culture" in Grenoble, Opera of Rouen-Haute Normandie, Giverny Museum of Impressionism, International Centre of Comics and Images in Angoulême, Abbey of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe and Frescos Valley, and the National Centre of Costume and Scenography. A National Committee of Liaison of the EPCC was set up in 2004 and, in 2007, was provided with a special cooperation fund, in order to foster the exchange good practices between these institutions and to favour the emergence of new modes of governance and public intervention for cultural development.

Moreover, in the context of territorial reform and budget austerity, the Statistics Department (DEPS) of the Ministry of Culture realised a research report on mutualisation and cooperative practices between cultural institutions: http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Politiques-ministerielles/Etudes-et-statistiques/Les-publications/Rapports-de-recherche/Nouvelles-pratiques-de-mutualisation-et-de-cooperation-dans-le-secteur-culturel

1.3. Cultural institutions

+1.3.1. Overview of cultural institutions

The French model of cultural policy is characterised by:

the importance of public intervention; and
the institutionalisation of a territorialised cultural governance based on partnership and agreement.

Even if the role of the State and the Ministry of Culture remains essential, the responsibility of the territorial authorities (municipalities, départements, regions) gradually increased following, in particular, the various phases of the devolution process: in 1982-83, in 2003-2004, and since 2009 a new step to devolution has been announced (see chapter 1.1, chapter 1.2.6 and chapter 7.1).

The cooperation between the institutions of cultural policy is based on multi-level partnership and agreement procedures: at all levels, it expresses itself by contractual procedures: between State departments (inter-ministerial agreements), between territorial authorities and State departments, between the different territorial authorities themselves, between public authorities and cultural institutions and structures.

Public institutions are more and more autonomous. This modifies the supervision process conducted by central State administration, with the development of agreements that link the allocation of resources to the achievement of certain objectives (contrats d'objectifs), in particular any increase in matching funding. It is the case, in particular, for the great national institutions like Musée du Louvre, Georges Pompidou Centre, Musée d'Orsay or Versailles Palace.

The State cultural institutions are concentrated in the region of Paris (Île-de-France) for historical reasons. They are encouraged to open decentralised branches, in France (Louvre-Lens in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Georges Pompidou Centre in Metz in the region Lorraine, Museum of Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean in Marseille…) and abroad with for instance the project Louvre Abu Dhabi (see chapter 1.4).

The institutions that belong to territorial authorities face the same issues: increase in matching funding objectives, decentralised actions in order to foster the cultural animation of the territories.

Another trend is the multiplication of labels that are assigned by the national, regional and local authorities in all the domains of cultural life: maison des illustres ("house of the renowned", jardin remarquable ("remarkable garden"), patrimoine du XXe siècle ("heritage of the XX century"), ville et pays d'art et d'histoire (cities and regions of art and history), grands sites ("great sites"), scènes nationales, scènes des musiques actuelles, centre des arts de la rue, etc. Many observers notice that labelling can be a guarantee of quality and visibility, and sometimes excellence, but at the same time this trend can reveal a certain financial disengagement. Indeed labelling does not necessarily lead to an important financial contribution and can simply be a marketing operation.

In 2014 the Ministry set up a Communal Statistical Database on Cultural Facilities (Base statistique communale des équipements culturels), available online: http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Politiques-ministerielles/Etudes-et-statistiques/Les-statistiques-culturelles/Base-statistique-communale-des-equipements-culturels

The database lists the main cultural facilities in 2012, in the following domains: Historical Monuments (classified and registered), Museums (labelled Musées de France), Theatres and performing arts venues, Cinemas, Libraries, Schools and Academies.

It must be regularly updated and expanded to other cultural domains.

+1.3.2. Data on selected public and private cultural institutions

Last update: November, 2016

Table 8: Cultural institutions financed by public authorities, by domain

Domain Cultural institutions (subdomains)	Number (year)	++ to --
Cultural heritage	Cultural heritage sites	14 070 classified national heritage sites "monuments historiques classés" (2012) 28 938 registered national heritage sites (2012) 119 483 classified movable objects (2011) Around 100 national heritage sites, State property (2013) 38 Unesco World Heritage Sites (2013) 163 sites labelled "villes et pays d'art et d'histoire" (2011) 373 distinguished gardens "jardins remarquables" (2011) 111 sites labelled "maison des illustres / residence of renowned" (2011)
	Museums	1 220 Museums of France (2011)
	Archives (of public authorities)	3 sites of the National Archives and 11 401 254 digitised documents (2010) 26 regional archives services (2010) 101 departmental (county) archives services and 263 142 digitised documents (2010) 1 National Institute of Broadcasting (audiovisual archives)
	Intangible heritage	11 practices and expressions registered on the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage (1 "in Need of Urgent Safeguarding")
Visual arts	Public art galleries / exhibition halls	1 National Centre of Visual Arts that runs the National Fund for Contemporary Art (2013) 23 Regional Funds for Contemporary Art (2013) 50 Contemporary Art Centres in 19 regions (2012) 1 244 private art galleries (2011)
	Higher Education	45 Art Schools in 58 sites (2013)
Performing arts	Symphonic orchestras	4 orchestras of Radio France : orchestre national de France, orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, chœur de Radio France, maîtrise de Radio France (2013) 24 regional orchestras (2011)
	Music schools	298 communal or intercommunal conservatoires (2013) 110 county conservatoires (2013) 43 regional conservatoires (2013)
	Higher education	10 music and dance academies (2011) 11 training centres for music and dance teachers (2011) 9 training centres for school music practitioners (2011) 11 theatre academies (2013) 3 circus academies (2013) 1 puppetry academy (2013) 2 performing arts academies (2013) 1 training platform for street arts (2013)
	Dramatic theatre	5 national theatres (2013) 40 national and regional dramatic centres (2013) 178 State-approved and State-agreed theatres (scènes nationales and scènes conventionnées) (2013) 12 national poles of circus (2013) 9 national centres of street-arts (2013) 627 subsidised drama companies (2010)
	Music theatres, opera houses	1 national opera in Paris (2 venues: Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille) (2014) 1 Opéra-Comique (2014) 13 regional operas (2014) 1 Cité de la musique in Paris (2014) 11 musical auditoriums in Paris (salle Pleyel, Louvre auditorium, Radio France auditorium, opening of the Philharmonie de Paris in 2015), Angers, Bourges, Bordeaux, Dijon, Lille, Lyon, Nantes (2014)
	Dance and ballet companies	1 National Dance Centre (2013) 19 choreographic centres and ballet companies (2010) 10 centres for choreographic development (2013) 258 subsidised dance companies (2011)
Books and Libraries	Libraries	3 special-status libraries: Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF), Bibliothèque publique d'information (BPI), médiathèque (multimedia library) of Cité des sciences et de l'industrie (2014) 6 948 municipal libraries (2011) 97 county libraries (2014) 5 overseas county libraries and 1 Bernheim Library in New Caledonia (2014) More than 1 400 academic libraries and resource centres involved in the collective catalogue of Higher Education and Research institutions (Système Universitaire de Documentation), corresponding to around 3 400 information and resource points/venues (2014)
	Other institutions	1 National Centre for Book Industry (Centre national du livre) (2013) 20 regional institutions for book policy (2011)
Audiovisual	Broadcasting organisations	France Télévision: 5 national mainland TV channels (France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 et France Ô) and 1 overseas broadcasting network (TV and radio) Radio France: 6 national stations (France Inter, France Info, France Culture, France Musiques, FIP, Le Mouv') and 1 network of local stations (France Bleu) 1 Franco-German and European channel: Arte France France Médias Monde: 1 international radio (RFI), 1 arab-speaking radio (Monte Carlo Doualiya), 1 international news channel (France 24), shareholder of 49% of the French-speaking world channel TV5.
Interdisciplinary	Socio-cultural centres / cultural houses	1 460 "youth and culture centres" (maisons des jeunes et de la culture, MJC) and associated institutions, organised in 2 main unions (2013): Fédération française des MJC: 560 MJC Confédération des MJC de France: 900 MJC
Other		5 heritage academies: École du Louvre, École nationale des Chartes, National Institute of Heritage, École de Chaillot, National Academy of Information Sciences and Libraries. 3 cinema and audiovisual academies: École nationale supérieure Louis Lumière, Inasup-audiovisual and digital techniques academy, La Femis-national academy of image and sound 5508 cinemas in mainland France (2012) around 300 artistic and cultural academic training courses in more than 50 universities: visual and applied arts, music and performing arts, cinema and audiovisual, arts management and administration, history of art, heritage and archaeology (2008).

Sources : Site du ministère de la Culture : http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr
Statistiques culturelles du DEPS, ministère de la Culture : http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Politiques-ministerielles/Etudes-et-statistiques/Les-statistiques-culturelles/
ABES : agence bibliographique de l'enseignement supérieur http://www.abes.fr
Unesco, liste du patrimoine mondial et liste du patrimoine culturel immatériel de l'humanité : http://www.unesco.org
Onisep : Office national d'information sur les enseignements et les professions : http://www.onisep.fr
Association Art+Université+Culture : http://www.auc.asso.fr

+1.3.3. Public cultural institutions: trends and strategies

1.4. International cooperation

+1.4.1. Public actors and cultural diplomacy

Last update: November, 2016

French cultural network and institutions abroad

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs set up operating institutions to pilot and coordinate the different departments and bodies of the French cultural network abroad, under the supervision of the Directorate-General of Global Affairs, Development and Partnerships:

the French Institute, a public institution (établissement public) created in 2011 to succeed the association Culturesfrance with a widened scope of activity and reinforced resources;
the Foundation Alliance Française, which took over in 2007 the international activities of the Alliance Française of Paris to promote the teaching of the French language;
the Agency for French Education Abroad (Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger, AEFE), a public institution created in 1990 to supervise the French schools network in the world; and
the Agency Campus France, which is responsible since 2010 for the promotion of the French Higher Education system, and of the international mobility of students, teachers and researchers.

The French Institute is responsible for the promotion of French external cultural policy regarding artistic exchanges – performing and visual arts and architecture –, for the worldwide diffusion of French literature, cinema, language, knowledge and ideas. Its activity is organised around two main axes:

the realisation of great operations: cultural seasons, multi-annual programmes, etc.; and
the support of the French cultural network abroad.

The Institute is experimenting with the unification of French agencies abroad (institutes, centres, departments in embassies) under the single label "French Institute", to achieve a more coherent and more effective policy.

A closer collaboration is also planned between the Institute and the Foundation Alliance Française and the establishments of the Foundation's network, the primary concern of which is teaching French abroad and delivering specific diplomas or those defined by the French Ministry of Education (DELF and DALF). Each Alliance Française is a local non-profit organisation operating autonomously with no political or religious commitments. They are independent and work towards the Foundation as franchises. The Foundation is the owner of the brand Alliance Française and allocates the right to use it after examination of the statutes and the announced objectives. There are no financial relations between the Foundation and the Alliances Françaises established abroad, which have their own funding system. One example is in New York, where the French Institute Alliance Française sources sponsorship according to practise in the United States.

Some institutions are specifically focused on the promotion of French cultural industries abroad:

the Bureau international de l'édition française (International Bureau of French publishing) for the books and publishing industry. This association exists since 1873 and is supported by the French Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, and the International Organisation of La Francophonie. It works in close collaboration with professional organisations and unions as the national labour union of publishing (SNE) or the Centrale de l'édition;
Unifrance films, an association created in 1949 to promote French cinema in the world. Placed under the supervision of the National Centre of Cinema (Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, CNC); Unifrance has 600 members, producers of films and short movies, exporters, actors, directors, scriptwriters and artistic agents; and
Bureau export, which represents the whole of the French music industry since 1993 (production of records and disks, publishers, show producers, etc.). It is half financed by the public authorities (Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture and Foreign Trade) and by professional organisations (copyright societies and unions, etc.).

These institutions collaborate with the establishment of the cultural network and sometimes have antennae or offices abroad.

Some figures on the French cultural network abroad (on July 15th 2015):

6 000 persons working in the 161 cooperation and cultural action departments in embassies;
98 Instituts français;
50 000 artistic events a year;
384 subsidised Alliances Françaises
620 000 learners in French Institutes and Alliance Française schools and classes;
213 Campus France offices;
27 French institutes for research abroad (IFRE): Centre d'études et de documentation économique, juridique et sociale (Cairo); Centre d'études français sur la Chine contemporaine (Hong Kong), Centre français d'études mexicaines et centraméricaines (Mexico); Centre franco-russe de recherches en sciences humaines et sociales (Moscow); Centre Jacques Berque pour les études en sciences humaines et sociales (Rabat); Centre franco-allemand de recherches en sciences sociales (Berlin), etc.;
137 French archaeological missions abroad;
the French Academy in Rome-Villa Medici, founded in 1666, which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture. It proposes residence scholarships to artists and organises cultural and artistic events;

Education and international relations

494 French schools abroad, which train 340 000 pupils in 136 countries, from primary to high school;
5 French Higher Schools abroad that are supervised by the Ministry of Higher Education: these historical institutions were created between 1846 and 1928 to develop exchanges between researchers and promote French science: École française d'Athènes, École française de Rome, Institut français d'archéologie orientale (Cairo), École française d'Extrême-Orient (different establishments in the Far East) and Casa de Velázquez in Madrid. The Casa de Velázquez also proposes scholarships for artistic residencies, like at the French Academy in Rome
1 700 000 pupils in the national bilingual sections (cf. chapter 8.3.3);
299 000 foreign students in France in 2014-15, which ranks France 3rd in the world in terms of attracting foreign students (according to UNESCO figures).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has set up an information and news website about the activities of the French cultural network abroad: http://latitudefrance.diplomatie.gouv.fr

the realisation of great operations: cultural seasons, multi-annual programmes, etc.; and
the support of the French cultural network abroad.

The European framework

France has ratified several treaties of the Council of Europe in the cultural field: the European Cultural Convention in 1955, the Convention for the Protection of Architectural Heritage of Europe in 1987, the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised) in 1995, and the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production in 2001. In 1999, France signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and in 2008, a modification of the Constitution introduced article 75-1: "Regional languages are part of France's heritage".

The Ministry of Culture participates in works of the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP): European cultural routes (with the signature in 2010 of Enlarged Partial Agreement to facilitate and strengthen the cooperation on these routes, there are 12 routes in France), European Heritage Days established in 1991 based on the model of the Heritage Days created in France in 1984. The Ministry also participates in the other cultural works of the Council: cultural governance observatory "CultureWatchEurope", the programme "Intercultural Cities" (Paris, Lyon and Strasbourg in France), etc. Through the CNC, the Ministry also contributes to Eurimages, the Council of Europe support fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works. Set up in 1988 as a Partial Agreement it currently has 36 member States. In 2014, the Ministry organised the Forum de Chaillot in Paris (http://traduction.culture.gouv.fr/url/Result.aspx?to=en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.culture.gouv.fr%2FActualites%2FForum-de-Chaillot-une-certaine-idee-de-la-culture-europeenne) to reopen and dynamise the debate on the role of culture in Europe.

Since the recognition of culture in the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the cultural actions of the European Union developed. The Minister of Culture represents France in the meetings of the Council of the European Union. The Ministry of Culture has been very active, besides the successive presidencies, in promoting the place of culture in EU policies.

The EU leads a dedicated policy for the broadcasting and audiovisual sectors, in particular with the programme MEDIA that was included in the Europe Creative programme for 2014-2020. In this framework, the Ministry of Culture helps to ensure that the cultural specifics of the member States are taken into account, based on the principle that an optimal functioning of the European single market needs a minimal set of common rules that cover, among others, advertising, broadcasting of programmes, protection of children on the Internet, as well as the major digital mutations.

In the field of heritage, the Ministry of Culture participates in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), which is a non-restrictive and quite flexible means of governance based on the voluntary cooperation of the member States. Within this framework, the European Commission launched a workgroup on the mobility of collections to facilitate a better harmonisation of the national legislations in this domain (definition of common guidelines and indicators, sharing of best practice, peer evaluation, etc.). Eventually, the EU plans to widen the OMC to other sectors of cultural policy and other working groups have been set up.

From 2008 to 2013, the French government created the Conseil culturel de l'Union pour la Méditerranée to raise and to encourage any public and private initiatives to promote the cultural dimension of the Mediterranean policy of France, in particular within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean and of the event "Marseille Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture".

The Ministry of Culture supports the Relais Culture Europe, which is a resource centre created in 1998 to inform and accompany the French and European cultural and artistic actors on issues linking Europe and culture, on the European cultural objectives, policies and programmes, and their meaning in terms of strategies, practices and projects. The Relais has a global objective of Europeanisation of the practices of the French cultural actors and it is also the national contact point for the Culture programme (2007-2013) of the European Union.

The Ministry of Culture also supports European networks. The Cultural Exchange Centres (Centres culturels de rencontre) emerged in 1972 in France, based on six emblematic monuments (Abbey of Fontevraud, Chartreuse of Villeneuve-lèz-Avignon, Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans…). The label "Cultural Exchange Centre" distinguishes an artistic, cultural and intellectual project developed in synergy with a major heritage site. The purpose of these centres is to provide public, cultural and social services by creating and developing new modes of cultural action and creation. The European network was established in 1991 in Dublin. It gathers 15 members in France, 27 in the rest of Europe and 5 from other parts of the world. The network is recognised for its expertise especially by European organisations. The Ministry also supports the network Banlieues d'Europe that federates 300 partners, whose joint objective is to exchange practices and information and to reduce isolation in order to valorise cultural action projects in deprived neighbourhoods with excluded communities.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French Institute are members of the network EUNIC-European Union National Institutes for Culture. The network groups the institutions from the member States of the European Union responsible for cultural action abroad. Established in 2006, it counts 29 members from 24 countries. The members are present in more than 150 countries, and represent more than 2 000 establishments. They deal with arts, languages, youth, education, sciences, intercultural dialogue and development. The members of EUNIC wish to favour cultural cooperation, to create sustainable partnerships between professionals, to encourage a mutual understanding and a rise in awareness for the various cultures of Europe. This network embodies a first step towards a common European cultural diplomacy.

International organisations

The French Commission for UNESCO must insure the intellectual influence of France within UNESCO and, mutually, it is responsible for promoting the influence of UNESCO and its values in French society, for informing and advocating the programmes of UNESCO, which is the only UN specialised agency in France. The Commission works together with the Permanent Representation of France to UNESCO, and collaborates with various ministries (Foreign and European Affairs, Education, Higher Education and Research, Culture and Communication, Ecology, Sustainable development and Energy), to organise events and foster expertise to renew the programmes of UNESCO. In 1997, the Ministry of Culture co-signed, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement (Convention France-Unesco, CFU), which allows France to give UNESCO and its members technical and financial support to safeguard the natural and cultural world heritage. The defence of cultural diversity is also one of the major priorities of the French authorities, especially the former President of the Republic Jacques Chirac, which actively worked to advocate the adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in 2005. Since 1997, the French Coalition for Cultural Diversity federates the professional cultural organisations (cinema, television, performing arts, music, graphic arts and multimedia) and defends cultural diversity in the context of international trade negotiations and agreements (http://www.coalitionfrancaise.org). The French Coalition is a founding member of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD) created in September 2007, and it is the permanent representative of the Federation to UNESCO.

The International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) is also especially concerned with the defence of cultural diversity. A workgroup on the implementation of the Convention of 2005 was set up within the Organisation. The OIF conducts several actions and programmes to develop cultural policies and has a fund to support the mobility of artists, and another fund dedicated to French-speaking Southern cinema and audiovisual production. The OIF set up four specialised operating bodies: the Academic Agency of La Francophonie, the International Association of Francophone Mayors, the Senghor University in Alexandria and TV5Monde, the worldwide Francophone broadcasting network. The OIF signed cooperation agreements with numerous international or regional organisations (United Nations, European Union and African Union). It is a major partner of the international cultural cooperation of France.

Besides, the Ministry of Culture works with professional and sectoral international organisations such as the International Council of museums (ICOM), the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in the field of museums; the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) for heritage; the International Council of Archives (ICA), the International Union of Architects (IUA), the International Commission of Francophone Theatre (CITF), etc.

Decentralised cooperation

Territorial authorities also participate in the external cultural action of France, in particular since the introduction of the guidance law (loi d'orientation) of 6 February 1992 on the territorial administration of the Republic, which sanctioned the naming of "decentralised cooperation" and formalised the practical law for it, and which is recorded in the articles L. 1115-1 - 7 of the general code on regional and local authorities (Code général des collectivités territoriales, CGCT). The identity projection and the cultural promotion revealed to be important components of the external relations of territorial authorities, even if the cultural projects are often only a part of cross-cutting programmes mainly focused on communication or economic issues for instance. A report commissioned in 2013 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs identifies 800 territorial cooperation projects in the field of culture. But the report also indicates that there are many more projects that contain a cultural part next to educational, touristic or even institutional cooperation. The atlas of the decentralised cooperation available on the site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs counts 6 700 ongoing projects in the section "Culture" (https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/CNCD_Plaquette_Portail_A4_EN-v4_cle4f75a1.pdf). In April, 2013 a conference was held in Toulouse under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the theme "Culture and international action of territorial authorities", organised by Cités Unies France, the federation of French territorial authorities involved in international cooperation.

Since 1995, the section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for cultural policy (AFAA, then Culturefrance and currently the Institut français) developed agreements with territorial authorities. These partnerships have several objectives:

reinforcement of territorial cultural diplomacy: through coordinated policies between the departments of external relations and the departments of culture of territorial authorities;
promotion of the artistic and creative resources and performers from the whole national territory; and
support to several hundred projects every year worldwide.

They are based on two major principles:

the parity between partners, and the support to creators and professionals in their international development project, in synergy with the French cultural network abroad. The agreements generally determine a geographical and / or artistic frame(s). They are open to all fields of creation and the arts and to all the programmes and projects of the French Institute; and
the sharing of skills and best practices regarding international development, cultural promotion and branding, or expertise and cultural engineering.

The independent NGO LIKE Culture, European cities and regions for Culture, based in Lille, gathers European territorial authorities (small and medium cities, capitals and metropolises, départements, regions, provinces, counties, etc.) to collaborate on their external cultural policy. The association constitutes a platform for cooperation, debates and common actions in the field of decentralised cultural policy (http://www.likeculture.eu).

Hosting and dialogue with foreign cultures

The promotion of foreign cultures is a tradition rooted in the history of France, which contributes to the advocacy of cultural diversity.

The Cité Internationale des Arts of Paris was created in 1965 to provide short or long stays (2 months to 1 year) to professional artists who want to develop artistic work in France. The Ministry of Culture, the City of Paris and the Academy of Arts support this foundation, among others. The city of Paris joined with the French Institute to renovate the Récollets Convent, a historical building in Paris on the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin and, since 2003, to make it a residency for artists and researchers from all over the world.

A non-profit organisation, the Onda - Office national de diffusion artistique (French office for contemporary performing arts circulation), was established in 1975. It is funded by the Ministry of Culture. Onda is strongly involved in European cooperation and networks. To encourage the hosting of foreign productions, Onda uses the following forms of aid:

financial guarantees;
financial assistance for touring foreign productions; and
financial support for the creation of surtitles (translated or transcribed lyrics / dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera, theatre or other musical performances).

The World Cultures Institute (Maison des Cultures du Monde) was created in 1982 to host foreign cultural expressions. It is open to all horizons and civilisations and is committed to protecting cultural diversity. Since 1997, it organises each year the Festival of Imagination (Festival de l'Imaginaire), which is open to the peoples and the civilisations of the contemporary world and their forms of expression in the domains of music, dance, theatre and ritual performances. The Institute received several prizes:

Prize Diderot Universalis in 1989 for its promotion of the traditional and modern theatrical forms;
Cultural Prize France-Korea 1999 for the promotion of Korean arts and performances; and
Prize of the French-Taiwanese cultural Foundation in 2004 for the promotion of the cultures of Taiwan.

The Institute of the Arab World (Institut du monde arabe, IMA) was created in 1987 to develop the knowledge of the Arab world and to promote its culture in France and Europe. The building was designed by a group of architects (Jean Nouvel and Architecture-Studio) who tried to create a synthesis between Arabian and Western cultures, with in particular the stylisation of the geometrical figure of the Mashrabiya, one of the historical themes of Arabian architecture. IMA is based on a partnership between France and twenty-two Arab countries: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. The Institute has become a "cultural bridge" between France, Europe and the Arab world.

The national theatre of the Odéon, which was always international-oriented (it was the first theatre in France to present Shakespeare in English, by a British theatre company in 1827), became in 1990 the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe with the mission of "fostering joint projects with stage directors, actors, playwrights and other figures involved in the dramatic arts in Europe, to present new works and breathe new life into Europe's artistic heritage" (decree of 1 June 1990). The Odéon hosted the head office of the Union of Theatres of Europe (and of the Mediterranean) (UTE), which was elected Cultural Ambassador by the EU Commission in 2012. The head office of the UTE is now in Bobigny on the outskirts of Paris.

For several years a foreign country has been invited to France to present the various facets of its culture during "cultural seasons" or "cultural years", which are co-piloted by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Seasons Department of the French Institute is in charge of organising these events, with numerous partnerships with various stakeholders: institutions and establishments, territorial authorities, firms and companies. The selected projects are hosted and presented by diverse cultural structures (theatres, cinemas, museums, etc.) throughout France. "French seasons" abroad are regularly organised with partner countries and constitute multidisciplinary showcases for French arts and culture (see chapter 1.4.2).

The hosting policies are also operated by the DRAC (Regional Directorates for Cultural Affairs), in particular in overseas territories. According to the recommendations of the General Conference for Overseas in 2009 (États généraux de l'outre-mer), the DRAC must orient their action towards the regional environment, by supporting the distribution of regional works and the mobility of artists, and by financing exchanges and international events (festivals, cultural meetings, conferences…).

Some territorial authorities support entities that promote foreign cultures. For instance the city of Nantes created a European Cultural Centre, which also hosts four bi-national cultural centres: a French-German Cultural Centre, a French-Italian Cultural Centre, a French-Spanish Cultural Centre and a French-British Cultural Centre. Different territorial authorities of the region Poitou-Charentes support the Centre of European Culture in Saint-Jean-d'Angély. This non profit-making association is dedicated to the promotion of European citizenship and construction, in particular through programming professional and amateur master classes and workshops in various artistic disciplines (song, dance, visual arts). Since 1998, it manages a network of 7 centres in Europe and beyond, based on a common charter. The network aims for a transfer of cultural and educational engineering, and at an exchange of best practices in organisation and management.

Moreover, numerous cultural festivals in many artistic domains host foreign artists, and allow the promotion of foreign cultures throughout the territories.

+1.4.2. European / international actors and programmes

Last update: November, 2016

Numerous programmes exist, involving stakeholders at all levels of public and private action in France, to favour and foster European and international cultural cooperation, including:

European Heritage Label is a scheme to highlight heritage sites that celebrate and symbolise European integration, ideals and history. It was launched in 2006 by the European Commission, following an initiative of the French Ministry of Culture. The label emphasises the European dimension of cultural monuments, natural or urban sites and commemorative sites. An interactive publication of the European sites that received this label was realised within the framework of an intergovernmental initiative.

France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement (see chapter 1.4.1). This agreement, by which France provides financial and technical aid to UNESCO members, is used as a lever to mobilise complementary aids for identification, protection and preservation of heritage. Over the last 15 years, approximately 100 have been undertaken in more than 50 countries throughout the world. With a budget of approximately 3.7 million EUR UNESCO has been able to mobilise more than 18 million EUR in the framework of the France-UNESCO cooperation agreement.

Programme "Creative Africa and Caribbean" (Afrique et Caraïbes en creation). This programme of the French Institute, allows the artistic expressions of the Global South countries to showcase in their own territories and to be present in international markets. The programme supports a range of major events that aim to be professional platforms: the biennale "Danse l'Afrique Danse", "Les Rencontres de Bamako" (photography), "La biennale Danses Caraïbe", "L'Afrique est à la Mode", etc..

Operations for the promotion of contemporary creation supported by the French Institute: Baltic Sounds French for contemporary music, France Danse for contemporary dance or Paris Calling, in London, for contemporary art. There are also exchanges between galleries (Berlin-Paris) or between multidisciplinary festivals (Croisements, in China).

Platform Focus of the French Institute, which since 2008 allows foreign artistic bookers and schedulers to discover the recent creations of artists living in France, in cooperation with a recognised international festival (http://www.institutfrancais.com/en/search/apachesolr_search/focus).

MyFrenchFilmFestival.com is an innovative type of festival, on-line, which is implemented by Unifrance Films and gives Internet users from all over the world the opportunity to discover and appreciate French cinema.

Cinémas du Monde Pavilion. Located at the heart of Cannes Film Festival's international village, the pavilion is a unique venue dedicated to world cinema (from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Near and Middle East) and a platform for working and networking opportunities. The pavilion is run by the Institut Français in partnership with the International Organisation of La Francophonie and the Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France (see chapter 2.5.3).

Cinémathèque Afrique (Africa Film Library), created in 1961 within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It insures the preservation and the distribution of African film heritage and constitutes one of the most complete collections of African movies from the 1960s.

Conservatoire itinérant de danse classique: aimed particularly at countries with a strong classical tradition or with their own major repertory companies, this travelling dance academy is particularly active in northern Asia, and in China in particular. In 2010, the Conservatoire and the Canton Ballet together created a version of Coppélia choreographed by Charles Jude, Director of the Opéra de Bordeaux Ballet.

Public-private partnerships

bilateral funds to which France and its partners contribute with private funding, for instance Étant Donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art that has made it possible to develop French projects across the United States; and
the Marcel Duchamp Prize launched in 2000 as part of a partnership between the Association for the International Diffusion of French Art (ADIAF), a group of collectors, and the Centre Georges Pompidou. In 2011, for example, the works of some of the past prizewinners were exhibited at the Mori Museum in Tokyo and later in South Korea.

Support programmes for the book and publishing sector, run by the French Institute, the Ministry of Culture and the National Book Centre: presence in book fairs abroad; aids for translation and distribution of French editorial products; training of new generations of translators of French; residency grants for the international College of literary translators in Arles (Collège international des traducteurs littéraires d'Arles, CITL: http://www.atlas-citl.org); implementation of databases on the works translated in foreign languages (http://www.frenchbooknews.com, http://www.tradarabe.org, http://www.fulei.org); support to the French-speaking editorial corporations and networks; the journal and centre of resources CulturesSud.com, covering authors, publishers and major cultural events in the Francophone Global South.

Support to the media libraries in the French cultural network abroad: staff training; creation of Bureaux du Livre and media libraries, development of digital technology with the Culturethèque platform or IFVerso (a database of over 70 000 titles translated from French into some forty other languages, presented in the form of a social network).

Alembert Fund, run by the French Institute, to encourage intellectual debate and "soft" diplomacy, to disseminate information on new intellectual scenes in France (particularly in the field of human and social sciences) to academic networks abroad, and to organise subsequent events.

Priority Solidarity Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the cultural field this fund provides support to authors, publishers, distributors and bookshops in Francophone areas:

aid with licensing and joint North / South publishing is helping publishers in the French-speaking Global South (Africa and Caribbean) to license the rights to works by their native authors already published in France, so that they can be published and distributed at prices affordable for the local market; and
a specific product line, "100 titres pour Haïti" (100 titles for Haiti), has been created to support the publication of fiction and non-fiction works by Haitian authors.

Every year at the Paris Book Fair, a bookshop from the Global South (Africa and the Caribbean) is selected to act as a showcase for Francophone literature.

The Franco-German Fund in third party countries

Set up in 2003 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Élysée, this fund is an instrument to emphasise the cultural cooperation between France and Germany in third party countries by means of concrete projects in the fields of visual arts, theatre, cinema, broadcasting, sports, intellectual debate, literature and language learning. The programme provides a flexible and original formula that extends beyond Franco-German cooperation to involve other European countries and convey the image of a Europe united around culture. As an added advantage, pooling the resources of the two countries leads to cost savings and has a positive impact on fundraising. Moreover, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Élysée, in 2012 the DEPS department of the Ministry of Culture and Goethe Institute launched a series of conferences on the theme "Cultures croisées. Politiques culturelles françaises et allemandes" ("Crossed cultures. French and German cultural policies").

Artist residency programmes in France and abroad

stays abroad for French writers, artists and culture professionals, as proposed in the programmes of the French Institute "Villa Médicis Hors Les Murs" (Villa Medici Extra Muros) or "Villa Kujoyama" (which is the name of the artists' residence associated with the French Institute of Japon-Kansai);
hosting of established or emergent foreign writers and artists in the Centre International d'Accueil et d'Échanges des Récollets and in the Cité Internationale des Arts, both located in Paris;
close on 350 creative artists on the French and international scene have benefited from a residency in the course of their career;
100 one-off grants are made every year to French artists, or artists resident in France for at least five years, to fund a residency abroad; and
100 other grants are made to foreign artists as part of the residency programmes set up with a number of different partners, including the City of Paris.

Portal of world performances (Portail des spectacles du monde), dedicated to the traditional performances of the world (in music, dance, theatre, rites). Realised by the Cité de la Musique, the World Cultures Institute (see chapter 1.4.1), the Quai Branly Museum, the théâtre de la Cité and the festival Les Orientales with the support of the Ministry of Culture: http://www.spectaclesdumonde.fr.

Cultural Festivals, Seasons and Years

These events have been, for more than 25 years, a trademark of French cultural engineering and expertise, and they are high profile tools of soft diplomacy. There can be different types: years (from 8 to 12 months); seasons (from 3 to 6 months); and festivals (from 1 to 3 months).

They are implemented by the French Institute, in collaboration with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture. The events programming, established in conjunction with foreign governments and agencies, is designed to:

showcase and enhance the image of both France and the partner countries;
promote better mutual knowledge and understanding;
highlight the vitality of exchanges in the fields of culture, education and academic research, but also in technology, science, industry, commerce and gastronomy; and
encourage new encounters and new initiatives intended to expand the scope of dialogue and cooperation.

The current trends of evolution are:

a generalisation of "crossed" seasons and years (such as France-China, France-Brazil, France-Russia, France-South Africa, France-Vietnam) to favour intercultural dialogue; and
the development of city-to-city partnership: tandem Paris-Buenos Aires in 2011 for example.

Overview of the cultural seasons and years since 1985

Année de l'Inde (1985-86)
Rendez-vous avec les Îles Philippines (1994-95)
La Saison tunisienne (1994-95)
L'Imaginaire irlandais (1996)
Le Printemps palestinien (1997)
La Saison jordanienne (1997)
Année du Japon en France, Année de la France au Japon (1997-98)
France Égypte, Horizons Partagés (1997-98)
Le Printemps vietnamien (1998)
Regards sur la culture géorgienne (1998)
Israël au Miroir des artistes (1998)
Le Printemps du Québec, le Feu sous la Glace (1999)
Regards sur la Culture ukrainienne (1999)
Le Temps du Maroc (1999)
Magyart, Saison culturelle hongroise (2001)
La France au Québec / la saison (2001)
Bohemia Magica, une saison tchèque (2002)
Djazaïr, une saison algérienne (2003)
Année de la Chine en France (octobre 2003-2004)
Nova Polska, une saison polonaise en France (2004)
L'Islande - Islande de glace et de feu (2004)
Année de la France en Chine (2004 - 2005)
Brésil, Brésils (2005)
Étonnante Lettonie (2005)
Francofffonies, festival francophone en France (2006)
Corée au cœur : 120 ans de relations diplomatiques (2006)
Tout à fait Thaï, festival thaïlandais en France (2006)
Arménie, mon amie (2006-2007)
Haut les Pays-Bas, saison néerlandaise (2007)
Pourquoi pas ? Un Printemps français en Islande (2007)
Un Printemps français en Lettonie (2007)
100% Finlande, un festival finlandais en France (2008)
France-Québec, quatre siècles de fraternité (2008)
150e anniversaire des relations diplomatiques France-Japon (2008)
La Saison Culturelle Européenne (2008)
Année de la France au Brésil (2009)
Saison de la Turquie en France (2009-2010)
Année France-Russie (2010)
Estonie tonique, Festival Estonien à Paris et en Île-de-France (2011)
Croatie, la voici, Festival de la Croatie en France (2012)
Tandem Paris-Berlin (2012)
Saisons croisées France - Afrique du Sud (2012-2013)
France Chine 50 (2014-2015)
Singapour en France - le Festival (2015)
Rendez-vous, Festival de la France en Croatie (2015)
Année France - Corée (2015-2016)
Tandem Paris - New York (2016)
Année France – Colombie (2017)
Année France – Israël (2018)

+1.4.3. NGO's and direct professional cooperation

Last update: November, 2016

Professional training and exchange schemes

The vitality of France's cultural scene and its experience in cultural administration and management give rise to a significant demand for co-operation (in the form of expertise and training) with foreign governments and culture operators. In addition to the programmes "Courants" (Streams) and "Formation Internationale Culture" (International Cultural Training), a number of directorates and institutions of the Ministry of Culture and Communication provide training for foreign professionals, and numerous expert missions covering a wide range of fields are organised each year.

The Ministry of Culture have long developed specific hosting and training schemes for foreign culture professionals and artists: training courses, work placements, workshops and meetings in all the sectors of culture. Since 1992, about 2 700 persons participated in these schemes, which are operated by the World Cultures Institute (see chapter 1.4.1) for the Ministry. Several types of programmes are proposed:

training courses: "stages courants du Monde", three weeks in November in the field of cultural administration, archives, libraries and financing of the culture; or technical placements proposed by the directorates and departments of the ministry;
individual stays of three-week duration, in various domains as museums and heritage, or short-term stays (European seminar of curators), also within the framework of the programme "courants du Monde";
immersion and long-term professional stays, from three months to one year in a cultural public institution (programme "Profession Culture");
residencies in Cultural Exchange Centres (see chapter 1.4.1) (programme Odyssée) or in institutions of contemporary arts; and
grants for professional stays and residencies ("heritage" grants, grants for authors and translators).

There are databases to facilitate the welcome of foreign artists and culture professionals, in particular:

http://www.artistes-etrangers.eu: this site was created under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture to inform culture professionals about the administrative, fiscal or legal formalities to be carried out to host foreigners; and
http://www.art4eu.net: the association "Pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes" listed, in the field of performing arts, discipline by discipline (writing, theatre, story-telling, circus and street arts, puppetry, music, dance, multidisciplinary forms, song), the cultural institutions that welcome foreign artists in residence. This information is available on the website of the association.

The French experience regarding arts administration and cultural policy is also valued by the organisation of Meetings Malraux (Rencontres Malraux, sending of French experts abroad) and of study trips (reception of foreign delegations and organisation of meetings with experts in France), which both respond to the request of countries that wish to benefit from French expertise and advice in various cultural domains (heritage policies, museums, archives, cinema, visual arts, performing arts, books). The Meetings Malraux, created in 1994, are organised together with the foreign authorities (Ministry of Culture or equivalent body) and with the cultural department of the embassy of France in the host country. The material organisation is run by the host country authorities, and the French Ministry of Culture provides the costs for experts and travelling costs.

By 2012, 74 Meetings Malraux were organised in 48 countries:

Albania (2004), Argentina (in 1996, 2001), Bahrain (2005), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997), Brazil (in 1995, 2009), Bulgaria (in 2003, 2007), Canada (1997), Chile (1995), China (1998), Colombia (in 1995, 1997, 2003, in 2005), South Korea (1996), Croatia (in 2002, 2007, 2009), Spain (2004), Estonia (2003), The United States (2008) Georgia (1999), Guatemala (1998), Hungary (in 1996, 2004), Iran (2009), Israel (in 1997, 2000), Italy (1999), Latvia (2008), Lebanon (2002), Lithuania (2001), Macedonia (in 1997, 2004), Morocco (1995), Mexico (in 2004, 2007), Montenegro (2001), Norway (in 2002, 2009), Palestine (1995), Panama (2000), Paraguay (1998), Portugal (2008), Dominican Republic (1999), Czech Republic (1998), Romania (in 2006, 2009), the United Kingdom (2002), Senegal (1997), Serbia (in 2007, 2008), Seychelles (2001), Slovakia (2001), Singapore (2012), Switzerland (2003), Syria (2004), Taiwan (in 1995, 1996, 2001, two in 2002, 2006, 2008), Thailand (2004), Ukraine (in 1997, 2005), Venezuela (1994).

In the field of heritage, the Ministry of Culture launched a project of lifelong learning on material and immaterial heritage for the French-speaking / Francophone countries, in partnership with the Academic Agency of La Francophonie ( AUF) and the World Francophone Digital University (Université Numérique Francophone Mondiale, UNFM: http://www.unfm.org): the E-patrimoines programme, which proposes training units on various themes (fight against the illicit traffic of cultural property, preventive conservation…)

The Chaillot School (created in 1887) is the department of training of the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine (National Establishment of Architecture and Heritage). The School provides training courses for architects' abroad (Bulgaria, Syria, Morocco…) and brings its support to the regional training centre for heritage professions in Cambodia, to train Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese architects about heritage, on the site of Angkor.

The National Institute of Heritage (Institut national du patrimoine, INP), which is an academy for the heritage professions, organises, in partnership with the Ministry, a series of European Heritage Meetings, on themes such as: the major restoration sites in Europe, Venice and the Mediterranean Sea, Heritage and immaterial economy, digitalisation of the written heritage, for a global approach to heritage. The INP also leads international actions through its two training departments: department of Curators and department of Restorers.

The General Directorate of Heritage of the Ministry regularly organises a seminar on African heritages, in Paris. The notion of African heritages covers at the same time: built elements of architecture, heritages that are not kept in museums (family heritage), manuscripts in Arabic in the "city-libraries" (Mauritania, Mali and Niger in particular), photographic archives, oral heritage (oral tradition, musical recordings), monetary heritage, etc. In 2012, the seminar dealt with the heritage of African kingdoms and empires: between public and private heritage; in 2011 the theme was African cities and their heritages and in 2010 the theme was "Forgotten Heritages in Africa". Following the earthquake of 2010 in Haiti, the General Directorate designed a programme entitled "Heritages for Haiti" to recover built heritage, museums and archives.

Cooperation between institutions and establishments

The major heritage institutions such as the museums (Louvre, Guimet, Quai Branly) share their expertise with their foreign partners, and also contribute to the advocacy of foreign cultures in France by the organisation of high-profile exhibitions. In the field of visual arts, Centre Pompidou and CNAP (National Centre for Visual Arts) are closely linked to numerous partners.

There is a specific inter-ministerial cooperation agreement with Canada to establish and maintain privileged and long-lasting links between Canadian and French museums, to improve the professional skills thanks to the exchange of good practices, and to foster the implementation of joint projects (see the page on the site of the French Committee of the ICOM).

A new stage in the internationalisation of establishments is the project Louvre Abu Dhabi: the realisation and the development of a universal museum, designed by Jean Nouvel, which will open in Abu Dhabi in 2014. France and United Arab Emirates signed, in 2007, an intergovernmental agreement, which organises this operation of cultural cooperation over 30 years. The France Museum Agency was created to conduct the project. The agency associates twelve French cultural public institutions and intervenes in the following domains:

the definition of the scientific and cultural project;
global assistance including for museography, signage and multimedia projects;
organisation of loans from French collections and temporary exhibitions;
advice on the constitution of a permanent collection; and
the definition of the audience policy.

When it opens, and for a period of 10 years, the Louvre Abu Dhabi will receive on loan some works from French public collections (300 in the first years, then 250 and 200). Besides that, for fifteen years, French partners will supply annually the Louvre Abu Dhabi with four exhibitions. Finally, French partners will assist the museum in constituting its own collection, in order to progressively replace the works lent by the French museums. Twenty works were already acquired. The United Arab Emirates agreed to pay about a billion EUR over thirty years, which will benefit to the Musée du Louvre and to the other partner museums in the operation.

The major institutions of performing arts (National Opera, Comédie Française, Odéon, Cité de la Musique, etc.) regularly invite troupes and orchestras from all over the world and organise tours abroad.

In 2008, ONDA (see chapter 1.4.1) launched the programme Space (Supporting the Performing Arts Circulation in Europe), to fight against the persistent imbalance between countries, regions, artists, disciplines and places of circulation of performing arts. The different objectives of the programme are:

on-line publishing of Travelogue, an instrument to link and share data on international performing arts touring that are collected by institutions all over Europe, so as to support the circulation of performing arts in Europe;
organise training sessions and exchanges, in particular for young professionals; and
support the institutional capacity building of the stakeholders from performing arts, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

The programme is developed in collaboration Vlaams Theatre Instituut (Brussels), Theatre Instituut Nederlands (Asmterdam), ITI (Berlin), New Institute of the Theatre (Riga), the British Council (London), Graft Teatrale Italiano (Rome), Pro Helvetia (Zurich), the Red House (Sofia), and the Institute of the Arts and the Theatre (Prague). The programme benefits from a financing by the European Union.

Institutions of higher education under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture (higher schools of architecture, art, cinema, academies of dramatic art, music and dance) welcome numerous students and foreign professors, whose networking fosters French cultural influence in the world.

In the field of broadcasting, the National Centre for Cinema (CNC) and the National Institute of Broadcasting (Institute national de l'audiovisuel) lead international actions. In the field of the cultural industries, institutions like the National Book Centre (Centre national du livre, CNL) or the National Library (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, BNF) are also particularly active at international level. In 2010, the National Library donated 500 000 French-speaking works to Biblioteca Alexandrina to reinforce the partnership between both institutions. These institutions work closely with international-focused sectorial organisations: Unifrance Films, Bureau international de l'édition française (International bureau of French publishing), Bureau export for music (see chapter 1.4.1).

Inter-professional networks

The international networks considerably multiplied in the last years and constitute essential tools for the durability of cooperation policies in the cultural domains.

The Ministry of Culture favours new initiatives, or participates directly in several international projects and networks, some of which are also supported by the European Union, by the Council of Europe or UNESCO: Culture-Action-Europe, International network for contemporary performing arts (IETM), Trans Europe Halles (European Network of Independent Cultural Centres), International Network on Cultural Policy (INCP), Banlieues d'Europe, Les Rencontres, CIRCLE-Cultural information and Research Centres Liaison in Europe, ENCACT-European network of Administration Training Centres, etc.

In the field of heritage, various networks or platforms exist, like the European Heritage Network (HEREIN), the European Heritage Heads Forum (EHHF), the European Heritage Legal Forum (EHLF), the Europae Archaeologiae Consilium (EAC), the Alliance of Cultural European Cities (8 French cities members or associated), or the European Forum for Architectural Policies, etc.

The Ministry of Culture also supports professional organisations that can increase the influence of French culture in the world and advocate cultural diversity: International Council of museums (ICOM), International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), International Council of Archives (ICA), International Union of Architects (IUA), International Commission of Francophone Theatre (CITF), etc.

Additional resources:

Mobility trends and case studies

Examples of mobility schemes for artists and cultural professionals in France

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