Jean-Roch Dumont Saint Priest (28 years old) has been appointed director of the Céret Museum of Modern Art for a five-year term. He took up his position on September 1, nine months after the retirement of Nathalie Gallissot, director of the establishment for ten years, and the withdrawal of the candidacy of Alice Cornier, former director of the Museum of Fine Arts. from Cambrai.
After a double degree in law and art history, Jean-Roch Dumont Saint Priest studied at Sciences Po Lille before obtaining his diploma from the National Heritage Institute in 2022. Specializing in modern and contemporary art, he was cultural mission manager for the Center des monuments nationaux, from 2017 to 2020, then exhibition manager for the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council, from 2019 to 2020. During this period, he was notably associate curator for a exhibition dedicated to the work of Pierre Soulages in Nice (February to September 2020).
Its direction will operate along three axes, he declared to the Journal des Arts. First of all, it intends to develop cross-border trade. The museum is “in the heart of the Mediterranean arc between Nice and Valencia. Céret has a Catalan identity, but we want to go beyond the Franco-Spanish border”, he specifies. Then, he attaches great importance to the territorial roots of the museum, wishing to strengthen the link with “territory stakeholders including other local cultural institutions”. Finally, he wishes to affirm the social and ecological responsibility of the Céret Museum of Modern Art.
Founded in 1950 by the painters Pierre Brune and Frank Burty Habiland, the Céret museum is a public establishment for cultural cooperation (EPCC) in dialogue with three administrative entities – the Region, the Department, the City – and the State.
