Culture and the rural world

The Ministry of Culture’s cultural development policy for rural territories aims to correct territorial imbalances, promote access to culture for all, ensure social cohesion and enhance the attractiveness of the territories.

This policy is conducted in partnership with the ministries in charge of agriculture and cohesion of the territories, the major associations federations present in the rural world - the Federation of Regional Natural Parks with which the Ministry of Culture has renewed its 2018-2021 framework agreement - and with local and regional authorities.

Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Agriculture, which has been in operation for some 30 years, has evolved considerably and has steadily expanded its scope. 

The first Protocol signed in 1984 and renewed in 1990 was aimed at to promote and enhance the creation, dissemination and cultural and artistic practice according to the methods adapted to the rural environment. It was based mainly on the network of agricultural high schools, one of whose missions is to participate in the animation of the rural environment ». 

Enriched by the 2010 National Food Programme (PNA) and the 2011 Rural Plan, this policy was reinforced on 23 September 2011 by the signing of aonvention cadre «Food, Agri-Culture».

Since 2016, the Ministry of Culture is also part of the dynamic of rural development schemes managed by the General Commission for Equality of the Territories (CGET): contracts of rurality, which integrate in their majority a cultural dimension through access to cultural services, the valorization of the heritage or the social cohesion, and the houses of service to the public (MSAP).

At regional level, the Ministry of Culture, through the Regional Cultural Affairs Directorates, a cultural policy in rural areas within the framework of regional agreements with the DRAAF and cultural development agreements with local authorities (regions, departments, communities of municipalities...).

It mobilizes the cultural actors of the territory - artistic teams, cultural institutions, cultural associations, regional natural parks, Countries of Art and History, federations of popular education, agricultural high schools, etc. - which irrigate the rural areas by setting up actions allowing the inhabitants to meet artists and works: artist residencies, actions outside the walls, itinerant or networked broadcasting, mobile projects, etc.

A supranational dimension was given by the European Community with the creation in each Member State of a rural network national. Declined at the regional level in regional rural networks, it helps to “break down silos between spaces, actors and themes”. It brings together all the actors benefiting from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), managed since 2015 by the regional councils. The Commissariat Général à l'égalité des Territoires, the Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Agroalimentaire et de la Forêt and the Association des régions françaises (ARF) are the guardians.