About us

Aim

Our aim is to promote long-term cultural exchange between France, the UK and the arts internationally.

What we do

Our work centres on three main areas of activity:

Professional development

We help organise and fund around 30 research trips per year for British arts programmers, gallery directors, curators and artists looking to go to France to explore, develop or maintain links to the French arts community.

Grants to UK arts organisations

We make modest grants to UK arts organisations and venues looking to develop a project in collaboration with a French partner.

Multilateral cooperation

This is a new area in which we develop projects that encourage and assist British and French arts professionals to work together within a broader international context. Our first project involved sending a working group of 12 British and French performing arts programmers to the Dhow Countries Festival in Zanzibar with the aim of encouraging them to collaborate in organising a European tour for some of the artists they saw.

What else do we do

In addition to the above, we provide general advice to the public and professionals about the arts in France. This includes: helping people navigate the French arts system; facilitating contact between UK and British arts professionals, providing networking opportunities; advising the French government and French organisations about the arts in the UK and offering interesting examples of approaches to the arts and learning from how things are done in the UK; offering any help we can to British professionals looking to connect with the French arts scene.

Art forms

Our current priority is to focus on contemporary art forms.

Our projects span the following art forms: Visual arts, performing arts, architecture, landscape and heritage. Separate departments are in charge of cinema, literature, social sciences, languages, education and popular music.

For information about cinema and learning French, please visit the French Institute website

For information about literature and social sciences, please visit the French Book News website

For information about popular French music, please visit the French Music Export Bureau website