Promoting design culture: a new partnership between Cnap and Cité du design
Cité du design and Centre national des arts plastiques share the same values of public service and are committed to fostering art and science at the highest level. In March, the two institutions signed a partnership agreement to highlight and disseminate design culture.
As part of its remit to facilitate access to art and to support artists and art professionals, and building on shared objectives, CNAP has joined forces with Cité du design in Saint-Etienne, France.
CNAP will bring its support to initiatives that take design to all publics. It will also encourage research and innovation in design. Its participation - which extends from the production of exhibitions or events, in particular through short-term and long-term loans from its collection, to contributing scientific competencies and other expertise - makes this partnership with Cité du design an important collaboration and a model of its kind.
Béatrice Salmon, director of CNAP, and Marc Chassaubéné, president of Cité du design, sign the agreement.
Under the terms of the agreement, CNAP will loan works from the Fonds national d’art contemporain (France’s national contemporary art collection) for temporary exhibitions at Cité du design. The two partners will also facilitate the circulation, in France and internationally, of exhibitions shown at various editions of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne.
Left to right: Sandra Cattini, head of the CNAP design and decorative arts collection - Claire Peillod, director of cultural and artistic development at Cité du design - Marc Chassaubéné, president of Cité du design - Béatrice Salmon, director of CNAP - Thierry Mandon, director of Cité du design
CNAP, with Cité du design, will contribute to the development of a national design gallery as an active member of the steering committee alongside local, national and regional institutions.
CNAP and Cité du design will combine their expertise in exhibition planning, facilitation and, more widely, the staging of design-related events for the general public.
Located at the heart of the creative district in Saint-Étienne, the only French city in the UNESCO creative cities network, Cité du design raises awareness of the challenges and uses of design among all publics. It fulfils three complementary missions: teach art and design, foster a design culture, and help businesses and public policymakers implement changes through design.
As producer of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne, Cité du design promotes design, stimulates curiosity for the contemporary world and encourages everyone, from experts to amateurs, to experience design. The agreement signed with CNAP and the opening, in 2023, of the Galerie Nationale du design take this ambition further forward.
