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Founded in 2007, C | E | A / French Curators Association aims to gather all those who curate exhibitions of contemporary art in France, and offer a space where this activity can be reflected on and promoted, and where actions and projects around it can be organised.

The purpose of C-E-A / Association française des commissaires d’exposition is to lead any kind of action liable to promote the activity of exhibition curators in France, in Europe, and all over the world. In this view, the aim of C-E-A is to impulse, develop and grant visibility to the projects that nourish a reflection on the parameters and stakes of exhibition curating.

The association was founded more than ten years ago and has always resided as close as possible to artists’ activities: first in connection with Treize association, in Paris, then with the multidisciplinary Mains d’Œuvres association in Saint-Ouen. A new collaboration with the Cité Internationale des Arts, through a permanent residency within its premises, will enable it to establish a privileged daily relationship between the artists in residence there and the network of French exhibition curators. Combining conviviality, hospitality and flexibility, C-E-A’s space intends to offer a working and meeting « hub » at the heart of Paris to all exhibition curators, whether they come from other continents, from Europe, from French provinces or from the Grand Paris, in order to make it easier for them to implement their projects when in Paris.

who are we?

C-E-A gathers about three hundred members, around a hundred of which take an active part in the running of the association each year. They are all French or foreign exhibition curators living in France or abroad, with a regular practice of setting up and putting on exhibitions of contemporary art. They all share a deeply thought approach to displaying works, accompanying artists all along the process of production and reflection on the issues contemporary creation raises. Their projects materialise in the premises of diffusion structures whose calling is to welcome visitors (public or private art galleries, museums, art centres and associations) as well as in other venues, including the public space.
The association is run by a board of volunteers gathering members deeply involved in its activities.
C-E-A is supported by the French Department for Culture’s direction générale de la création artistique. It is a member of CIPAC, Fédération des professionnels de l’art contemporain.

Our activities


> RAISING AWARENESS, INFORMING AND PROMOTING
C-E-A leads a number of actions towards public bodies, French and foreign professionals, and a specialised audience: events, approaches aiming better to know the characteristics of this activity as well as to structure and develop it, bearing in mind that independent curators do not currently benefit from any adapted social or fiscal status to practice their activity and that they often concurrently hold another job.
> A PROFESSIONAL NETWORK
An exhibition curator’s activity requires an expanding knowledge of current artistic news. C-E-A therefore enables its curating members to develop work opportunities in France and abroad, and meet artists and professionals, notably through implementing European exchange programs and professional field trips. The association regularly works in collaboration with specific institutional partners.
> CREATING RESOURCES AND TOOLS
C-E-A’s website offers a large number of resources around a curator’s activities (invitations to tender, audio and video archives). C-E-A publishes documents in connection with seminars or research work enabling to develop a reflection around curatorial practices. The association also creates a number of documents and tools that can be useful to professionals and sponsors: a standard contract, a guide of fair practices, a trade file, a charter…
> FROM EXPERTISE TO COUNSELLING
As a professional representative body recognised by the French Department for Culture and Communication, C-E-A is a privileged interlocutor in the field of visual arts as far as exhibition curators are concerned. The association’s mission is to provide its expertise and advice on curators’ activities and practices. The association answers the questions asked and issues raised by professionals. C-E-A works conjointly with a lawyer specializing in copyright law.

goals

 

C | E | A / French Curators Association leads an information and promotion action of the activity of curator on the French territory and towards other countries in order to develop the work opportunities for the practitioners. In consultation with public partners, the Association develops methods of dissemination on the territorial, national and international levels, the expertise of the curators living in France. Thus, it intends to arouse in prescribers of the artistic and cultural world the desire to create devices allowing curators to develop and implement their projects with artists (scholarships, residencies, tenders, etc.).

With this in mind, its objectives are as follows:

  • To federate the commissioners to constitute a force of proposal to the decision-making bodies, the public organizations and the institutions of international cooperation
  • To structure the activity of the commissariat of exposure for, alongside the other bodies of its constituent activities, to participate in the structuring movement of the visual arts field,
  • To make visible the action of the exhibition curators in France,
  • To initiate and lead projects likely to develop the activity of curators in France and the curators resident in France. France in the international direction
  • To nurture thoughst on the parameters and challenges of the exhibition curator.

board of administrators

 

The Board of Directors meets four times a year (March, June, September, December).

The General Assembly of the association is held once a year (January).

An information meeting allows, once a year in May, to answer questions from members and future members.

As for the working groups, they meet regularly and independently and are led by the members of the Board of Directors.

executive board  :
Jérôme Cotinet-Alphaize – President
Marianne Derrien – Vice-president
Julien Duc-Maugé – Vice-president
Théo-Mario Coppola – Vice-president
Marie-Louise Botella – Treasurer
Jean-Christophe Arcos – Secretary

board of administrators :
Damien Airault
Arlène Berceliot Courtin
Fabienne Bideaud
Raphaële Jeune
Madeleine Mathé
Laura Morsch-Kihn
Lucie Orbie
Andrea Rodriguez Novoa
Karin Schlageter
Leïla Simon
Veronica Valentini
Marion Zilio

previous resource persons :
Clément Dirié (January 2010 – February 2013 )
Estelle Nabeyrat (September 2008 – September 2009)
Christian Alandete (February – August 2008)
Muriel Enjalran (October 2007 – January 2008)

founding members and former Members of executive board :
Daria de Beauvais, Marc Bembekoff, Marie Cozette, Keren Detton, Raphaële Jeune, Julie Pellegrin, Vérane Pina, Nathalie Travers, Emilie Villez.

Résidence curatoriale Voyons VoirOUTILS : LA RÉMUNÉRATION DES COMMISSAIRES D'EXPOSITION INDÉPENDANT·E·S