Think contemporary art in France and it is Paris’s still radical-looking Centre Pompidou that springs to mind. But for all Beaubourg’s status as a cultural powerhouse, the French have been anxious not to neglect their regions. In the past 30 years state-funded collections of contemporary art have quietly sprung up across France, bringing big-name artists such as Cindy Sherman and Sophie Calle to remote corners of the country, from Brittany to Provence.
The Fonds régionaux d’art contemporain (regional contemporary art funds, or Frac) were initiated by culture minister Jack Lang in 1982 as part of a decentralisation plan, the aim being to present the artists of the day to a diverse public in a spirit of fraternité. Now numbering 23, Frac are present in every French region, with more than 26,000 works by 4,200 French and international artists comprising the third largest public collection of contemporary art in France (behind the Paris-based Cnap, the Centre national des arts plastiques, and the Pompidou’s Musée national d’art moderne).
