Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior and Overseas, Pap Ndiaye, Minister of National Education and Youth, and Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of Higher Education and Research, announce the appointment, as of September 12, from Constance Rivière as Director General of the public establishment of the Palais de la Porte Dorée, which brings together the National Museum of Immigration History and the Tropical Aquarium.
Constance Rivière had been general secretary of the Defender of Rights for five years. Between 2012 and 2017, she was a member of the cabinet of the President of the Republic, as special advisor in charge of culture and citizenship after having been deputy director of his cabinet and advisor in charge of institutions, of society and civil liberties. She published two novels, A girl with no history and The house of solitudes, with Stock Publishing. She is master of requests to the Council of State, former student of the Ecole normale supérieure and the Ecole nationale d'administration. Constance Rivière is also involved in various cultural and social initiatives, as a member of the boards of directors of Bibliothèques sans frontières, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles, and Chair of the Board of Directors of Place de la Culture, which brings artists closer to social structures.
This three-year mandate will allow Constance Rivière to develop an ambitious project for the Palais de la Porte Dorée, a place of citizenship and commitment, inscribed in a building with a controversial history but of great architectural richness, now unique cultural place in the French landscape. It will develop for the museum of the history of immigration, an open public policy, particularly attentive to the redesign of the permanent path, enriching the collections in an interactive approach with the public, and strengthening the museum’s European and international vocation. Issues of biodiversity and climate emergency will naturally be at the heart of the Tropical Aquarium’s programming.
More broadly, Constance Rivière will carry out artistic and cultural programming, with a high level of scientific requirement, developing partnerships and investing even more the place and its exteriors. This ambition will be addressed both to children and young people, in artistic and cultural education courses, and to families, who will find in the museum a suitable course enriched by contemporary, digital or immersive technologies. The project of Constance River, also aims at the general public and plans to develop the Palace as a place of life for all.
The Palais de la Porte Dorée is an open place for meetings and exchanges, with interdisciplinary cultural and scientific programming, with the commitment of the teams, the support of the President of the Board of Directors of the institution, Mercedes Erra, and that of the President of the Board of Orientation, François Héran, Constance Rivière will put its commitment at the service of this ambitious and innovative project.
Constance Rivière succeeds Pap Ndiaye. Rima Abdul-Malak welcomes the total commitment of the school’s teams during the interim period.