The national jury, composed of 7 personalities appointed by the Minister of Culture and chaired by Bernard Faivre d'Arcier, met to examine the 29 applications submitted by the municipalities or groups of municipalities for the award of the label “French Capital of Culture” in 2022.

After a careful analysis of the application files carried out by the regional Cultural Affairs Directorates and the Overseas Cultural Affairs Directorates, the national jury selected, after deliberation, the following 9 applications:

  • Grand Angoulême Agglomeration Community,
  • The City of Brest,
  • The City of Laval,
  • The City of Le Mans,
  • The City of Metz,
  • The City of Saint-Paul de La Réunion,
  • The City of Sète,
  • The Val Briard Community of Communes,
  • The City of Villeurbanne.

With a view to the second selection phase and their hearings, these municipalities or groups of municipalities are required to complete their application by filling in the online questionnaire on the website dedicated to the label by Monday, March 15, 2021: www.capitale-culture.fr

Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture, thanks all the municipalities or groups of municipalities that have wished to apply for this first edition of the label «French Capital of Culture» in a constrained context and welcomes their commitment to strong cultural policies, stakeholders of the identity and dynamism of their territory.

Considering the quality and diversity of the cultural projects carried by the communes or groups of communes, the Minister of Culture asked her decentralized services as well as the new general delegation to the transmission, the territories and cultural democracy to support the communities not selected in the development of their cultural projects.

The jury will hear the successful candidates during the last week of March 2021. The Minister of Culture will then announce the community winner of the first edition of the “French Capital of Culture” label, which will take place on 1 January.er January to December 31, 2022.

The label “French Capital of Culture” distinguishes every two years the cultural project of a municipality or a group of municipalities of 20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants. The award of the label is accompanied by funding of one million euros, financed at parity between the Ministry of Culture and the Caisse des Dépôts for this first edition which will take place in 2022.

The label “French Capital of Culture” is a project led and funded by the Ministry of Culture with the support of the Caisse des Dépôts, and implemented by the Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais (Rmn-GP). This project also benefited from the mobilization of the Ministries of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Economy, Finance and Recovery, Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local and Regional Authorities, as well as all associations representing elected representatives of local authorities.

The label in brief

  • 1 label: «French capital of culture»
  • 1 average city or a group of municipalities of 20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants designated every two years
  • EUR 1 million for the selected cultural project
  • 1 Capital designated in March 2021 for a first edition in 2022

The biographies of the jury members are available on the website: https://capitale-culture.fr/les-membres-du-jury