ministry of culture

Délégation aux Arts Plastiques (DAP)
The ministry of culture is once more giving crucial support, both technical and financial, to the Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, which has become one of the major contemporary art events in France.

The policy of exhibiting and distributing
contemporary art
The DAP will be organising exhibitions in Paris, in the national galleries of the Grand Palais and the Musée
du Luxembourg, which in 1996 staged "Monument et modernité: Etat des lieux, commandes publiques en France, 1990-1996".
The DAP also supervises the collections that belong to the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (FNAC), with exhibitions such as "Transit", which will be held in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA)
from September to November 1997. This exhibition follows on from the FNAC's "Morceaux choisis", which took place at Le Magasin, in Grenoble, in 1995.

Exhibitions are also being put on by other important institutions, for example the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, whose resolutely contemporary programming provides an account of the artistic debates of the moment, as well as giving prominence to the personalities involved in the art of our time and taking an experimental approach to the promotion of new works. This is also the case for the Centre National de la Photographie (CNP), which brings to the notice of a large audience the work of major photographers, active in France and elsewhere, by means of retrospective and thematic exhibitions.
Outside of Paris, art centres and the Fonds Régionaux d'Art Contemporain (FRAC) have become essential motors for bringing contemporary art in all its forms to the attention of the public.

Besides these institutions, and side by side with the Musées d'Art Contemporain, there are numerous other venues, foundations and associations, which help to publicise contemporary art, in its most experimental aspects, on a nationwide basis.

Education and assistance
Considerable attention is today being focussed on the kind of education that is necessary to the development of access to culture, and the promotion of the plastic arts. There are 54 art schools in the provinces of France, and 3 national public establishments in Paris (ENSBA, ENSAD and ENSCI). Support for art education consists, for example, in multiplying international exchanges, suppor

ting exhibitions and enriching the art schools' documentary archives. The DAP also manages the national schools' funds for technical and computing equipment.

In Poitou-Charentes, a project for a multi-site school of images is in preparation. And, finally, the Studio National des Arts Contemporains in Fresnoy, which is currently being completed, will facilitate exchanges between different artistic disciplines.
Assistance for individuals favours a real sense of emulation in contemporary art. The DAP runs programmes for the introduction of artists into the world of science, support for production and post-production structures, workplaces for artists, etc.

The grants awarded by the Fonds d'Incitation à la Création (FIACRE) allow artists to carry out research projects and to execute works in France and abroad.

The DAP also supports events organised by other institutional and associative partners.

Public commissions and the FNAC's acquisitions demonstrate the state's desire to invest in contemporary art. The FNAC's function is to acquire works by living artists, and to lend works from its collection to museums, public institutions and exhibitions. With a collection of some 60,000 works, the FNAC operates according to the principle that every artist should have unrestricted access to the purchasing committees, of which there are three: for the plastic arts, the decorative arts and design. These committees are composed of art professionals, personalities from the art world and representatives of the ministry of culture.