Minister, dear Sébastien,
Ladies and gentlemen parliamentarians,
Ladies and gentlemen mayors,
Ladies and gentlemen elected,
Madam President of the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, dear Marie-Christine Labourdette,
Dear Rollon Mouchel-Blaisot, Director of Action cœur de ville,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Thank you, dear Marie-Christine, for your welcome.
And thank you all for being here.
I think it’s important that this 2e National meeting of the program «Action coeur de ville» is held here, at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine.
Because there is a noble ambition within these walls.
An ambition I share.
That of making dialogue between the past and the future; of harmoniously combining heritage and architectural creation.
To promote the values of both, in the service of the quality of life of our fellow citizens.
It also aims to promote the work of elected officials, project leaders, professionals in architecture, heritage and landscape.
All this is carried by the walls that surround us, and that led us, with the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion, to choose CAPA as the national referent to accompany Action coeur de ville; to be its sounding board.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am here today because I believe that we can make every city a place of culture.
We can, and we must.
Because a land strategy is more than a development project.
Because the attractiveness of a territory also depends – and I would even say that it depends first – on its cultural richness.
Because cultural wealth is simply wealth.
For any municipality, culture is a lever for economic development and tourist attraction.
A lever for revitalization and cohesion.
How to give – or give back – a territory’s identity.
To federate the inhabitants, to help them to reclaim their environment.
To bring them together, to strengthen their sense of belonging.
To make them proud.
That is why the Ministry of Culture is so involved in the revitalization of urban centres.
It is a partner in all interdepartmental programs on the subject:
From the call for expressions of interest Centres-Bourgs, launched in 2014...
Experimenting with workshops in “heritage cities” territories, launched in 2017…
Up to the «Action Coeur de Ville» plan, initiated last year.
Supporting this plan means supporting territorial projects; projects serving our medium-sized cities.
It means supporting cultural projects.
I want to believe that the two are inseparable.
These projects, your projects, I really want them.
I want to do this because my ambition as Minister of Culture is to rework the thread of a great policy for culture and creation.
This thread, it is in the territories that we will retissessera.
Because it is there, in our territories, that know-how, arts and traditions are deployed.
This is where we can see the full extent of the beauties of our heritage, traces of our history, exceptional landscapes.
Every day, thousands of associations, entrepreneurs and elected officials are mobilizing for culture.
I know: I saw it, I lived it, in Coulommiers, where I was mayor for over 10 years.
I know how essential the dialogue between local elected representatives and cultural actors is.
I want to thank the elected representatives who are taking part: you are here, many of us here today. Thank you for your commitment.
This dialogue, “Action coeur de ville”, will enable us to establish and strengthen it in the service of innovative projects – such as those to come in the context of the call for projects “Let’s reinvent our city cores”.
And this dialogue already exists in many places: I want to see the projects that will be presented, as part of the 8 thematic workshops of the day.
They will be an opportunity for you to exchange, to share your experiences, your best practices.
The opportunity also to show all the variety of possible cultural projects.
There is no single way to revitalize your cities; there are a thousand.
Through our heritage first.
He’s all around us!
Of the 222 cities selected for Action cœur de ville:
- Nearly 60% have outstanding heritage sites,
- And almost 30% have their heart of town located near historical monuments.
- In total, 90% of the 222 cities are covered by a protected area.
This heritage can be a vector of vitality: through its restoration, its valorization; through its rehabilitation, its adaptation to new uses, new expectations, new ways of life.
We need to reinvest that wealth.
Make it a living heritage.
Regenerate it, transform it.
Do not let it freeze for eternity, but renew it.
Not only keep it, but also innovate.
For example, it encourages contemporary architectural creation at the heart of protected heritage ensembles.
It is modernizing existing buildings, rather than developing new subdivisions, to limit the artificialization of soils.
It is to renovate the building, to bring it up to thermal standards, and to meet the challenges of the energy transition.
It is to revitalize trade, and create virtuous dynamics – like these villages, where a merchant, by deciding to renovate his storefront, has encouraged others to do the same.
It means reclaiming public space, making it easily accessible and offering a positive image of the city.
It also means reconverting, reinventing the disused places that abound everywhere in France
It means offering them a new use, installing new services, new cultural and artistic offerings.
Renewing the cultural offer of our territories: this is another way to revitalize them!
This is why, on the occasion of the "Action cœur de ville" programme, I would like to reinforce certain initiatives of the Ministry of Culture:
I am thinking of the deployment, throughout France, of Micro-Funds true digital museums and popular spaces of cultural practices,
200 are already being deployed on national territory… and if you wish, the State will accompany you to deploy them in your city hearts.
We will also propose to you to experiment the establishment of «creative cultural districts» in your city hearts.
We are thinking about this device with some of you.
The goal is to help cultural businesses and spaces come together in a heritage space, which would host incubators, incubators and work-sharing spaces for cultural entrepreneurs.
These spaces could also offer an exhibition space, a bookstore, a theatre or a cinema to attract the public.
The establishment of these cultural and creative neighbourhoods could be achieved through the provision of vacant heritage places, which I mentioned earlier.
We are currently preparing a call for expressions of interest that could be launched in the near future for communities.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
To reinvest our heritage, to renew our cultural facilities…
For all this, elected officials, mayors, communities need you:
You, architects;
You, landscape designers;
You, designers of urban projects;
All of you, architecture and heritage professionals.
The Ministry of Culture and all its services will be at your side.
We are all committed to “Action cœur de ville”:
The decentralized services of the Ministry of Culture, and especially the architects of the Buildings of France in our regional cultural affairs departments.
For local calls for projects «reinventing the city centres», we encourage the early co-construction of projects: by associating the ABFs with the drafting of specifications, but also all the DRAC services, with the local calls for projects.
And I look forward to mobilizing networks across the territory to support communities:
- Architectural, urban and environmental councils, for support and advice to local authorities;
- The network of architectural houses, for mediation around projects;
- National Graduate Schools of Architecture.
I am thinking first of the ENSA in Clermont-Ferrand, which has already volunteered to participate in the program.
But other ENSA will be able to join us and support the program, in various forms of teaching «outside the walls», especially to help the emergence of innovative projects.
- The Chaillot school can be associated for preliminary diagnostics and pre-operational studies;
- Finally, I also know that I can count on elected representatives' heritage associations to support communities in implementing local projects.
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a lot of people to mobilize!
But it is necessary.
Because it is our collective intelligence, the association of ideas and good will, the co-construction of projects, that will determine the success of “Action coeur de ville”.