Art centers. It is not easy to imagine the future of art centers as this name covers different realities. Between the Palais de Tokyo, the Lambert Collection, the CAPC in Bordeaux on the one hand and the CEEAC in Strasbourg or Le Lait in Albi, the scales, means and missions are too different for the same diagnosis to be necessary. By designating by default everything that is neither a museum, nor a Frac, nor a cultural center, the category has lost its identity.
The unfortunate label “Center for contemporary art of national interest” (Cacin) has not really cleared up this vagueness. By wanting to bring together very diverse structures under the same banner, he maintains confusion. A label only makes sense if it corresponds to a clearly identifiable offer.
In the art world, however, the art center retains a more precise meaning. It designates a place without a collection, dedicated to the exhibition of emerging artists, to experimentation and, sometimes, to the production of works. It is this narrower definition that we use here. But it is also this model which appears the most fragile today. Dependent almost exclusively on local authorities, these places without their own resources struggle to justify their usefulness to elected officials subject to other priorities. The BBB in Toulouse and the Château d’Aubenas are two recent examples. Their positioning is, moreover, contested by the Frac, whose means are more consistent. They too exhibit ultra-contemporary art, produce works and far surpass art centers in the mission of cultural democratization.
Three avenues for development are emerging. The first consists of linking art centers more closely to other institutions: art schools, theaters, cinemas, media libraries. Such integration makes it possible to pool resources, to meet audiences and to escape from a singularity that has become pointless. This is the path that several centers have embarked on.
The second is to more frankly assume a dimension of sociability. Café, restaurant, bookstore, meeting spaces: making the art center a place of life and entertainment does not contradict artistic requirements. It is perhaps, on the contrary, a condition of his attendance.
The third, more structural, would be to reconnect with the model of Kunstvereins Germans. A community of members, contributing to the financing of the place and associated with its governance and programming, would provide a more stable foundation and would free art centers from outdated elitism.
