After having been cultural advisor to Élisabeth Borne and then to Gabriel Attal for a year, Marie Ameller (41 years old) becomes the new deputy general director of the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine. A graduate of ESSEC and the École du Louvre in museology, she has spent a large part of her career in ministries. She worked at the Ministry of Culture between 2017 and 2019 in the general directorate of artistic creation as budget officer and chief of staff.
She then served as advisor in charge of speeches, culture, memory and educational projects in the office of the Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports until 2021. Then she spent two years at the National Book Center to take over as delegate for dissemination and reading before joining the Prime Minister’s office.
The new director replaces Luc Lièvre, who has been in office since 2011. Her mission will be to lead the dissemination, teaching and promotion of French architectural heritage and contemporary creation in architecture. The president of the Cité, Julien Bargeton, was appointed last April.
The Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine (CAPA), created in 2004, is an EPIC (public industrial and commercial establishment) under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, located in the Palais de Chaillot. It carries out promotional missions relating to architectural heritage and contemporary French creation. The establishment also brings together the École de Chaillot (1887) which trains the architecture of historic monuments and the Institut français d’architecture (1981) which is responsible for the promotion of contemporary French architecture and preserves architects’ archives.
The Museum of French Monuments, created in 1882 and attached to the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, is the largest French architectural museum. It is the only national museum to be entirely dedicated to the history of architecture and monumental heritage, from the Romanesque period to today.
