The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry of the

Government of France The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

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 The 1st arrondissement of Paris (''Ier arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le premier'' (the first). I ...

on the . It is headed by the Minister of Culture, a cabinet member. The current officeholder has been

Rachida Dati Rachida Dati (, ; born 27 November 1965) is a French politician and former magistrate who has been Minister of Culture (France), Minister of Culture since January 2024 in the Attal government, government of Gabriel Attal, the Barnier government, ...

since 11 January 2024.

History

Deriving from the Italian and Burgundian courts of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, 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 , the Académie de peinture et de sculpture and other state-sponsored institutions of artistic production, and through the cultural policies of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert. The modern post of Minister of Culture was created by

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

in 1959 and the first officeholder 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 The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic , and it replaced the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of 1946 with the exception of the preamble per a 1971 d ...

and the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...

(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 François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...

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

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

rap music Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

, bande dessinées,

fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

and

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

. 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'' and overseeing the French Revolution bicentennial (1989), he was in charge of the massive architectural program of the

years (the so-called ''Grands travaux''; 'Great Works') that gave permission for the building of the

Bibliothèque nationale A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...

, the new

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, the Arab World Institute, the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

, the Opéra-Bastille, the "

Grande Arche La Grande Arche de la Défense (; "The Great Arch of the Defense"), originally called La Grande Arche de la Fraternité (; "Fraternity"), is a monument and building in the business district of La Défense and in the commune of Puteaux, to the west ...

" 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, 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 a large science museum in Europe. Located in the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is one of the three dozen French Cultural ...

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 of Paris, 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues ...

. The Ministry of Jacques Toubon was notable for a number of laws (the " Toubon Laws") enacted for the preservation of the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

, 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 Minister of Culture of France: * February 1959: André Malraux * June 1969: Edmond Michelet * October 1970: André Bettencourt * January 1971: Jacques Duhamel * April 1973: Maurice Druon * March 1974: Alain Peyrefitte * 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: Jacques Toubon * May 1995: Philippe Douste-Blazy * June 1997: Catherine Trautmann * March 2000: Catherine Tasca * May 2002: Jean-Jacques Aillagon * March 2004: Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres * May 2007: Christine Albanel * June 2009: Frédéric Mitterrand * May 2012: Aurélie Filippetti * August 2014: Fleur Pellerin * February 2016:

Audrey Azoulay Audrey Azoulay (; born 4 August 1972) is a French Jew of Moroccan descent, French Civil Service, civil servant and politician who has served as the 11th Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UN ...

* May 2017: Françoise Nyssen * October 2018:

Franck Riester Franck Alix Georges Riester (born 3 January 1974) is a French politician of Renaissance (French political party), Renaissance (RE). He has represented the Seine-et-Marne's 5th constituency, fifth constituency of Seine-et-Marne in the National A ...

* July 2020: Roselyne Bachelot * May 2022: Rima Abdul Malak * January 2024:

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 ** General inventory of cultural heritage maintains extensive databases of historical sites and objects via the Base Mérimée and status. * ''Direction des archives de France'' (DAF) in charge of the

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

* ''Direction du livre et de la lecture'' (DLL) in charge of

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...

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 labelled 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 France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

) 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

and

languages of France French is the sole official language in France according to the second article of the French Constitution. French, a Gallo-Romance language, is spoken by nearly the entire population of France. In addition to French, several regional langua ...

Finally, the Ministry shares in the management of the National Centre of Cinema (Centre national de la cinématographie, CNC), 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 In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

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 '' Fête de la Musique'', the Maison de la culture de Grenoble, the ''

Festival d'Avignon The ''Festival d'Avignon'', or Avignon Festival (), is an annual arts festival held in the France, French city of Avignon every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes as well as in other locations of the city. Founded in 1947 by ...

'', the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles, the

Joconde Joconde is the central database created in 1975 and now available online, maintained by the Minister of Culture (France), French Ministry of Culture, for objects in the collections of the main French public and private museums listed as ''Mus� ...

(online database of objects in French museums), the Base Mérimée (database of listed heritage monuments), and the Maître d'art 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) Culture of France

Culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...