Although France has a long tradition of patronage of the arts by central government, be it royal or Republican, it is only since the Fifth Republic was established by De Gaulle in 1958 that all cabinets have included a Minister of Culture.

The Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication is the main Government Department responsible for culture and the arts, and its remit is very similar to the UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport, or DCMS.

The Ministry is in charge of eight areas: heritage; museums; libraries and archives; theatre; the visual arts; cinema; music and dance; books and reading. French cultural policies have broadly similar priorities to the UK: increasing access, improving quality of the arts, use of IT to improve access to the arts, 'diversité culturelle' (pluralism and protection of French language).

As in the UK, other Government Departments are also involved in supporting culture, notably the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères via Cultures France - which is more or less equivalent to the British Council.

There are three layers of local government administration in France - 'communes' (cities and towns), 'départements' and 'régions'. These play a much larger role in funding the arts than their UK counterparts.

The local arts budgets of departments and regions are five times bigger than they were at the start of the 1980s, and the arts budgets of districts have doubled. Or to put it another way, local arts funds are around five times the level of UK equivalents. 50.1% of arts funding comes from central government and 49.9% from local authorities (which divides up into 40.6% from district councils, 7.3% from departmental councils and 2% from regional councils). In tandem with the funding allocated by central government, these budgets allow local authorities to play a vital role in cultural activities.

Visual arts offices at different local government levels:

1) See DRACs: the network of regional offices of the French Ministry of culture and communication known as DRACs (Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs) which, with 'devolved' funds and powers from Paris, have the task of advising and encouraging local authorities.

2) Regional councils: See map of France for the regions of France. Each region has a Conseil régional. Each Conseil régional has its own Cultural department (service culturel) and its own arts policy. There is generally at least one visual arts officer who plays a similar role to the visual arts development officers in the DRAC.

The regions tend not to fund individual artists. But since every region has its own policy it is worth investigating what the regional visual arts officer can offer.

3) Departmental councils (Conseil général)

There are 95 'départements' in France and each one has a cultural office and again, its own cultural policy. Some are more inclined towards the visual arts than others, depending on their self-determined priorities and geographical situation (many départements cover predominately rural areas). Again, it is worth making an appointment with the visual arts officer if there is one, in order to make oneself known in order to benefit from opportunities that may arise.

The Conseils généraux often support small independent arts organisations and organise events such as Open Studios. Many of them buy art from locally based artists.

4) Town councils: communes/villes.

Most large towns have important cultural sections with visual arts officers responsible for implementing local arts policy. They can be very supportive of artists based in the town. Smaller towns may have a cultural department but with no specialised visual arts officer and even smaller communes will have no cultural policy to speak of at all, beyond the organisation of the annual fireworks display on July 14th. Generally speaking, it is good to find out who the contacts are where-ever you are based and to make yourself known to whoever is around.

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