The Centre Georges Pompidou
1/ What Is the Centre Georges Pompidou ?
2/ MusΘe national d'art
moderne-Centre de crΘation industrielle
3/ DΘpartement du dΘveloppement culturel
4/ BibliothΦque Publique
d'Information [Public Information Library]
[http://www.bpi.fr]
5/ Institut de Recherche et
Coordination Acoustique/Musique [Institute of Research and Coordination
Acoustics/Music]
[http://www.ircam.fr]
6/ The
Building
1/ What Is the Centre Georges Pompidou ?
With its 25,000 visitors a day, the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou is one of the most popular cultural sites in the world. Its glass and steel architecture, with its multicolored pipes, its walkways, and its famous escalator suspended along the outer wall, provides a striking contrast to its historic surroundings in the heart of Paris.
A Unique Cultural Complex
The Centre Pompidou brings together under a single roof the MusΘe national d'art moderne-Centre de crΘation industrielle (Mnam-Cci, the the multimedia BibliothΦque publique d'information (Bpi), and the Institut de recherche acoustique/musique (Ircam). It thus offers the public access to all forms of contemporary artistic theory and practice: painting and sculpture, photography, design, architecture, theater, music, dance, film, new technologies, literature, and philosophy.
How the Centre Works
The Centre Pompidou's threefold mission is to contribute to the development of France's culture heritage, to promote artistic creation, and to inform and educate the public.Created by law on 3 January 1975, the Centre has the status of a national public authority in the cultural domain; as such, it is a legal entity with financial autonomy. It is now governed by the decree of 24 December 1992.
The Centre is composed of two major department, two associated bodies, and various cultural and administrative units.
The two departments are:
The MusΘe national d'art moderne-Centre de crΘation industrielle (National Museum of Modern Art-Center for Industrial Design, Mnam-Cci)
It covers modern and contemporary painting and sculpture, drawing, photography, design and visual communication, architecture, experimental film, and video and new technologies. It is responsible for the State's art collections from 1905 to the present day, as well as new design and architecture collections.
Its mission includes developing the collections, organizing public events, situating the various creative disciplines in their historical context, highlighting their most innovative aspects, and providing the public with specialized reference materials.
It covers and develops the Centre's activities in the fields of live entertainment, cinema and spoken reviews, to give the public of all ages better access to modern and contemporary art and culture.
Other services are responsibles for learning-related activities, public relations, or the provision of resources, audio-visual services and communications for departments and associated bodies. They also provide administrative and financial management, security for the public and the works of art, and maintenance of the building.
The two associated bodies are:
An autonomous public authority created by the decree of 26 January 1976. Its mission is to maintain up-to-date collections of printed and other resources from France and elsewhere that are made available to the general public without restrictions and, wherever possible, in open access.
A nonprofit organization governed by the law of 1901. Its mission is to ensure the operation of a cultural institution devoted to all forms of creation in the field of acoustical and musical research, to take stock of the new possibilities that modern scientific techniques offer composers and musicians, and to make the results of their research available to the general public.
The Centre Georges Pompidou is administered by a president appointed for three years by the French cabinet and by a nine-member board of directors that includes the chairman, the administrator, the heads of the departments and associated bodies, the government commissioner representing the ministry of culture, the financial auditor, and the accountant.
A twenty-five member advisory committee (including three representatives from the National Assembly, three senators, five representatives from the ministry of culture, one from the city of Paris, and three from the center personnel) oversees the Centre's cultural orientation as well as the public authority's proposed budget.
Latest update, monday 28 december1998 ⌐ CNAC-GP