Creation of the French Capital of Culture label

The creation of the label

French Capital of Culture

aims to highlight the dynamism and attractiveness of the territories by distinguishing every two years from 2021 an ambitious, structuring and innovative project centered on art and culture, developed by a medium-sized city or a group of municipalities with 20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants.

The project aims to encourage and support communities that choose culture to revitalize or revitalize their territory, with the goal of highlighting projects that are part of a long-term cultural policy, affecting all generations, in favor of the cultural vitality of the territories.

The label

French Capital of Culture

is a project piloted and funded by the Ministry of Culture with the support of the Caisse des Dépôts and implemented by the Réunion des Musées nationales-Grand Palais (Rmn-GP). The selected project will receive an allocation of EUR 1 million.

The criteria

Applications must be submitted for a cultural project covering the entire year for which the label is awarded, in accordance with the following criteria:

• the innovative nature of the project;
• its cultural influence at national and international level;
• the territorial cooperation that its implementation implies;
• the accessibility of the project to persons with disabilities;
• the capacity to enter the project in a multi-annual period.

Applications can be submitted until 31 December 2020 on the dedicated platform www.capitale-culture.fr which offers all the useful information (procedure, calendar...).

The selection

The selection panel (renewed each time a label award procedure is opened) is composed of seven qualified personalities appointed by the Ministry of Culture. It includes:

• two representatives of professionals from the cultural world (one artist and one cultural institution manager);
• two specialists or actors in community cultural development and/or cultural tourism;
• an organizer of national or international events;
• an expert in cultural public policy;
• a representative of a national association, foundation, movement or network in the fields of popular education and solidarity.

The label shall be awarded for a period of one year, corresponding to the calendar year following the date of award of the label. The first capital will be designated in March 2021.