Roaming of shows and artistic residencies are among the good practices to develop and sustain to promote culture in rural areas, according to a report from the Ministry of Culture, while its new figure, Rachida Dati, has made this project a priority. The new minister explained Monday during her wishes that she wanted to make rurality “the priority at the start of her mission”. She cited on Wednesday this report commissioned by her predecessor, Rima Abdul Malak, and published last week.
This document from the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (Igac) studies the action of the 367 performing arts and visual arts structures known as “labelled”, that is to say benefiting from support for the creation of works by the State, in collaboration with local authorities. Igac notes that these structures are poorly established in rural areas but that measures have been implemented in recent years to accommodate “remote” populations or to “project themselves beyond the walls”.
Among these “good practices”: “roaming of shows and exhibitions”, “design of mobile devices”, “artistic residencies”, “artistic and cultural education projects” or even “cooperation with relay points located near rural areas. The report cites the example of the National Drama Center (CDN) of Valence (Drôme), which “designed a mobile device” that can accommodate 40 to 75 spectators on mobile stands. Or the CDN of Saint-Étienne (Loire), which deploys “very technically light forms” in order to reach schools more easily. The Réunion Regional Contemporary Art Fund, for its part, has an “exhibition container”, allowing nomadic approaches.
Overall, rural towns, rural areas with dispersed housing and rural areas with very dispersed housing, according to INSEE definitions – or nearly 22 million inhabitants – “only account for 5% of labeled structures”, points out the finger the report. Igac also makes transport a “central issue” and recommends in particular the purchase of shuttles or preferential rates for local authorities which organize collective transport to labeled places.