The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, plastic, theatrical, musical, dance, architectural, literary, televisual and cinematographic) on national soil and abroad. Its budget is mainly dedicated to the management of the (six national sites and hundred decentralised storage facilities) and the regional (culture centres). Its main office is in the in the 1st arrondissement of Paris on the . It is headed by the Minister of Culture, a cabinet member. The current officeholder has been since 20 May 2022.

History

Deriving from the Italian and Burgundian courts of the Renaissance, the notion that the state had a key role to play in the sponsoring of artistic production and that the arts were linked to national prestige was found in France from at least the 16th century on. During the pre-revolutionary period, these ideas are apparent in such things as the creation of the Académie française, the Académie de peinture et de sculpture and other state-sponsored institutions of artistic production, and through the cultural policies of Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert. The modern post of Minister of Culture was created by Charles de Gaulle in 1959 and the first officeholders was the writer André Malraux. Malraux was responsible for realising the goals of the ''droit à la culture'' ("right to culture"), an idea which had been incorporated in the Constitution of France and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), by democratising access to culture, while also achieving the Gaullist aim of elevating the "grandeur" ("greatness") of post-war France. To this end, he created numerous regional cultural centres throughout France and actively sponsored the arts. Malraux's artistic tastes included the modern arts and the avant-garde, but on the whole he remained conservative. Archives nationales Pierrefitte 1

Under President François Mitterrand the Minister of Culture was Jack Lang who showed himself to be far more open to popular cultural production, including

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, rap music, graffiti, cartoons, comic books, fashion and food. His famous phrase "économie et culture, même combat" ("economy and culture: it's the same fight") is representative of his commitment to cultural democracy and to active national sponsorship and participation in cultural production. In addition to the creation of the ''

Fête de la Musique The Fête de la Musique, also known in English as Music Day, Make Music Day or World Music Day, is an annual music celebration that takes place on 21 June. On Music Day, citizens and residents are urged to play music outside in their neighborho ...

'' and overseeing the French Revolution bicentennial (1989), he was in charge of the massive architectural program of the François Mitterrand years (the so-called ''Grands travaux'' or "Great Works") that gave permission for the building of the Bibliothèque nationale, the new Louvre, the Arab World Institute, the Musée d'Orsay, the Opéra-Bastille, the " Grande Arche" of La Défense (the Parisian business quarter), the new seat of the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance, the

Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre (french: Centre culturel Tjibaou), on the narrow Tinu Peninsula, approximately northeast of the historic centre of Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia, celebrates the vernacular Kanak culture, the ind ...

, and the

Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie ("City of Science and Industry", abbreviated la CSI) or simply CSI is the biggest science museum in Europe. Located in the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is one of the three dozen French Cultu ...

and Cité de la Musique, both in the

Parc de la Villette The Parc de la Villette is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues in Paris, including the Cité d ...

. The Ministry of

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was notable for a number of laws (the " Toubon Laws") enacted for the preservation of the French language, both in advertisements (all ads must include a French translation of foreign words) and on the radio (35% of songs on French radio stations must be in French), ostensibly in reaction to the presence of English.

Ministers of Culture

The following people were appointed as Minister of Culture of France: * February 1959: André Malraux * June 1969: Edmond Michelet * October 1970:

André Bettencourt André Bettencourt (; 21 April 1919 – 19 November 2007) was a French politician. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, and was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He had been a member of La Cagoule, a violent French fascist-leaning and anti- ...

* January 1971: * April 1973: Maurice Druon * March 1974:

Alain Peyrefitte Alain Peyrefitte (; 26 August 1925 – 27 November 1999) was a French scholar and politician. He was a confidant of Charles de Gaulle and had a long career in public service, serving as a diplomat in Germany and Poland. Peyrefitte is remembered ...

* June 1974: * August 1976: Françoise Giroud * March 1977: Michel d'Ornano * April 1978: Jean-Philippe Lecat * March 1981: Michel d'Ornano * May 1981: Jack Lang * March 1986: François Léotard * May 1988: Jack Lang * March 1993:

* May 1995: Philippe Douste-Blazy * June 1997: Catherine Trautmann * March 2000:

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* May 2002: Jean-Jacques Aillagon * March 2004: Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres * May 2007:

Christine Albanel Christine Albanel (born 25 June 1955) is a French politician and civil servant. From May 2007 to June 2009, she was France's Minister for Culture and Communication in François Fillon's government. Early career Albanel is agrégé in classica ...

* June 2009: Frédéric Mitterrand * May 2012:

Aurélie Filippetti Aurélie Filippetti ( ; born 17 June 1973) is a French politician and novelist. She served as French Minister of Culture and Communications from 2012 until 2014, first in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault and then in the government of Manu ...

* August 2014:

Fleur Pellerin Fleur Pellerin (; née Kim Jong-sook, born 29 August 1973) is a French businesswoman, former civil servant and Socialist Party politician who served as a French government minister from 2012 to 2016. Early life Pellerin was born in 1973 in Seou ...

* February 2016: Audrey Azoulay * May 2017:

Françoise Nyssen Françoise Nyssen (born 9 June 1951) is a French-Belgian publisher and politician and a former director of the Actes Sud publishing house. From 2017 until 2018, she served as Minister of Culture of France in the government of Prime Minister Édo ...

* October 2018:

Franck Riester Franck Riester (born 3 January 1974) is a French politician who has been serving as Minister Delegate for Parliamentary Relations in the Government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne since July 2022. He previously served as Minister Delegate for ...

* July 2020: Roselyne Bachelot * May 2022: Rima Abdul Malak

Names of the Ministry of Culture

Since the French constitution does not identify specific ministers (merely speaking of "the minister in charge of" this or that), each government may label each ministry as they wish, or even have a broader ministry in charge of several governmental sectors. Hence, the ministry has gone through a number of different names: * 1959: ''Ministère des Affaires culturelles'' * 1974: ''Ministère des Affaires culturelles et de l'Environnement'' * 1974: ''Secrétariat d'État à la Culture'' * 1976: ''Ministère de la Culture et de l'Environnement'' * 1978: ''Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication'' * 1981: ''Ministère de la Culture'' * 1986: ''Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication'' * 1988: ''Ministère de la Culture, de la Communication, des Grands Travaux et du Bicentenaire'' * 1991: ''Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication'' * 1992: ''Ministère de l'Éducation nationale et de la Culture'' * 1993: ''Ministère de la Culture et de la Francophonie'' * 1995: ''Ministère de la Culture'' * 1997: ''Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication'' * 2017: ''Ministère de la Culture''

Organisation

Central administration

The Ministry of Culture is made up of a variety of internal divisions, including: * ''Direction de l'administration générale'' (DAG) * ''Direction de l'architecture et du patrimoine'' (DAPA) in charge of national monuments and heritage ** ''Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel'' maintains extensive databases of historical sites and objects via the Base Mérimée and ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a col ...

'' status. * ''Direction des archives de France'' (DAF) in charge of the National Archives * ''Direction du livre et de la lecture'' (DLL) in charge of French literature and the book trade * ''Direction de la musique, de la danse, du théâtre et des spectacles'' (DMDTS) in charge of music, dance and theater * ''Direction des Musées de France'' (DMF) in charge of national museums The Ministry has access to one inter-ministerial division: * ''Direction du développement des médias'' (DDM) in charge of developing and expanding the French media (although French public television is run through the public-service company France Télévisions) The Ministry also runs three "delegations" (administrative boards): * ''Délégation aux arts plastiques'' (DAP) in charge of the visual and sculptural arts * ''Délégation au développement et aux affaires internationales'' (DDAI) in charge of international affairs and French art * ''Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France'' (DGLFLF) in charge of the French language and languages of France Finally, the Ministry shares in the management of the National Centre of Cinema (Centre national de la cinématographie), a public institution. The Alliance française is run by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Other services

On the national level, the Ministry also runs: * Regional Cultural Affairs (Direction régionale des affaires culturelles, DRAC) * Departmental Architecture and Monuments (Services départementaux de l'architecture et du patrimoine, SDAP) * Departmental Archives under the direction of the departmental councils * Centre National de la Danse, institution for the study and preservation of dance

Cultural activities

The Ministry of Culture is responsible for, or a major sponsor of, a number of annual cultural activities, including the ''

'', the

Maison de la culture de Grenoble The Maison de la Culture de Grenoble, commonly called MC2, is a public venue for public events located on the Avenue Marcellin-Berthelot in Grenoble, France. History Built by André Wogenscky on the occasion of the Olympics, MC2 was inaugurated ...

, the '' Festival d'Avignon'', the

Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles The Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles (French: Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles) is a French public establishment founded in 1995, and working under the ...

, the

Joconde Joconde is the central database created in 1975 and now available online, maintained by the French Ministry of Culture, for objects in the collections of the main French public and private museums listed as ''Musées de France'', according to ...

(online database of objects in French museums), the Base Mérimée (database of listed heritage monuments), and the

Maître d'art ''Maître d'art'' (Master of Art) is a title awarded for life by the French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its ...

program.

References

External links

*
Culture Portal of the Ministry of Culture
(Page index in English, documents in French)
Culture Portal of the Ministry of Culture

English pages
(Archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Minister Of Culture (France) French culture Culture ministers Government ministries of France