“Historic” fund to be created for cultural venues in Paris

The deputy mayor of Paris, Christophe Girard, has revealed how the city plans to recover its cultural life, including the launch of a hardship fund for venues, the repurposing of outdoor spaces for cultural events and the introduction of a dedicated month of culture in August.

In an interview with Télérama, Girard, who is responsible for overseeing culture in the French capital, emphasised the importance of “restarting” life in Paris, announcing that a hardship fund of “historic proportion” will be presented to the Paris Council on 18 May.

The fund will be open to state-backed cultural establishments, and will also be extended to private theatres and nighttime venues such as cabarets and bars, which have already been contacted by Paris night mayor, Frédéric Hocquard.

Major cultural venues, such as the Centquatre, as well as theatres and museums, will begin to prepare for staff to come back from 11 May and work on implementing health and safety plans, with artistic teams returning by the end of the month.

Girard adds that the plan is to convert state-run theatres into workspaces for artists to rehearse and prepare for the year ahead.

“I bet the public will want to support artists, because we need them”

The council is also assessing where concerts and theatrical productions could potentially take place in the city’s green spaces.

In July, preparations will begin for Un Mois d’Août de la culture à Paris (August of culture in Paris), which aims to involve all the big publicly funded venues in the city for a month of concerts, dance, cinema screenings, art installations and theatrical performances in outdoor spaces across the city.

Girard states he is also planning for La Nuit Blanche (White Night), the annual Parisian all-night arts festival, set to take place at the beginning of October. The deputy mayor adds that “another way of living and looking at art” will need to be established for the event, with a maximum of ten people viewing exhibitions or installations at any given time.

Demand for cultural events and appetite for attending venues will be there, says Girard, . “I bet the public will want to support artists,” he says, “because we need them.”

The plans for the city’s reopening follow an extension of the nationwide ban on events of over 5,000 people from mid-July to September.

 

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