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Fonds régional d'art contemporain

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The Fonds régional d'art contemporain (FRAC) is a network of 23 public collections of contemporary art across France. They are funded both regionally and nationally, and depending on the size of each collection they may be hosted in existing historical buildings, or in their own art museums.

Contents

Founding and history

FRAC was founded by culture minister Jack Lang, as part of a decentralization policy to move aspects of governance out to regional governments. Starting in 1982, regional funds were set up to promote and encourage contemporary art by forming regional collections, and engaging in outreach to local communities and cultural institutions. This quickly grew to 23 regional collections.

The goals of the FRAC program were:

  • To build a heritage of contemporary art in the region, and support the creation of new art through the combined actions of acquisitions and commissioning works. Each FRAC may decide to specialize in a particular category of contemporary art.
  • To disseminate funds widely within each region, developing regular partnerships with cultural institutions, local authorities and schools.
  • To raise broad awareness in contemporary art methods, through tours, speakers, events with artists, and workshops with young people.

    • Next generation

    Starting in 2012, the FRAC next generation program set out plans to build 6 physical museums for some of these collections:

  • Aquitaine (Bordeaux, architect Bjarke Ingels Group, opening 2017),
  • Bretagne (Rennes, architect Odile Decq, opened July 6, 2012),
  • Centre (Orléans, architects Jakob + MacFarlane, opened September 5, 2013)
  • Franche-Comté (Besançon, architect Kengo Kuma, opened April 6, 2013),
  • Nord-Pas-de-Calais (Dunkerque, architects Lacaton et Vassal, opened November 16, 2013), and
  • Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

    • FRAC collections

    The 23 FRAC collections, as of 2015:

    References

    Fonds régional d'art contemporain Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA