On Friday 17 March 2023, François Barbarit representing the Academic Director of the National Education Services of Maine-et-Loire, Pierre Ory, Prefect of Maine and Loire, Nicolas Dufetel (Assistant to Culture and Heritage) and Caroline Fel (Assistant for Education and Family) of the city of Angers have signed a local contract of arts and cultural education.

A CLEA to reduce inequalities in access to culture

Driven by the desire to reduce inequalities in access to art and culture, the City of Angers, the DRAC Pays de la Loire, and the Ministry of National Education, are committed to a Local Contract of Arts Education (CLÉA) for the period 2022-2025.

This new contract concluded for 3 years is part of a multi-stakeholder construction dynamic. Due to the multiplicity of CLÉA’s challenges, the project is co-led by two City of Angers departments: the Department of Culture and Heritage and the Department of Education. With this new mechanism, the city wants to strengthen and structure its actions in this area.

The CLEA also concretizes the establishment of a mediation residence, allowing artists to build links and exchanges with local actors.

A duo of young artists

Following a call for applications for this first edition, the successful candidates are Éléonore Sense and Nora Dupont, a duo of artist-designers who are primarily interested in the transmission processes and the relationships between humans and other species.

They are welcomed in residence for 4 months (February-May) and intervene, in two neighborhoods: Roseraie/ Beauval-Bédier-Morellerie and Justices/ Madeleine Saint-Léonard.  

Raising awareness of art and culture from an early age

The artists' project concerns children aged 6 to 8 and takes place on school, extracurricular or extracurricular time.

The CLEA is aimed at everyone, mainly children from 3 years, but also young people, adults and families. It is also intended for all structures welcoming all public: cultural establishments, medico-social, school, extracurricular, etc.

What is a Local Arts Education Contract?

The CLEA (Local Arts Education Contract) is a mechanism for raising awareness of art and culture for young audiences aged 3 to 25 and educational actors in charge.

CLEA provides a framework and means for the construction of artistic and cultural projects. It is structured around a mediation residence offered to an artist or a collective, whatever his or her artistic field. It is for these resident artists to engage in an approach of transmission giving to see and understand the artistic research that animates them as well as the processes of creation.