The French art scene is, needless to say, very different from Britain's and it has undergone considerable transformation in the last five years. Before going down the French route, it is worth taking the time to get to grips with the 'système français' in order to be better equipped for dealing with it (see Administrative organisation on this page below).

In France, the importance attached to culture has often taken the form of direct state intervention. There are, for example, no independent or quasi-independent agencies comparable to the Arts Councils. And even after over a decade of decentralization, central government still intervenes energetically in the arts.

More specifically, as regards contemporary art, the infrastructures of the 1980s still exist, notably the Centres d'arts and the FRAC, both listed in Exhibition Venues. But they are increasingly encountering difficulties regarding funding, often because local authorities are not willing to pick up the bill when central government wants to pull out. And their "raison d'être", perfectly clear 20 years ago when they were created under the auspices of then minister of culture Jack Lang, are increasingly being questioned.

Contrary to the description of the ailing French art scene a few years ago in Art Monthly (1998, issue 154), where a little "alternative" medicine was advocated, there are now many small independent and alternative arts organisations and "associations" (see Exhibition Venues). And all over France there has been a boom in artist-led organisations established. Undoubtedly, these are in part a reaction to the official and often inaccessible official arts infrastructures.

The Paris art scene has been rejuvenated by the arrival of the new venue, Palais de Tokyo (www.palaisdetokyo.com). This was originally intended to have a lifespan of no more than three years, but now it looks like it's here to stay. This new type of contemporary art centre (new for France at least) which is open around the clock, is intended to compensate for the fact that the Pompidou Centre is no longer a natural home for contemporary art and that there is no other 'happening' venue to be found.

Read more about the Paris art scene, alternative galleries and studios in the Observer article from Sunday 20 November 2005 at observer.guardian.co.uk. Alternatively, see the new Paris-Ile-de-France tourist site for updated events and arts information at english.pidf.com.

There is a current trend in France towards mixing contemporary art with live music ("musiques actuelles"), DJ events, contemporary dance, performance, video and live art. The Palais de Tokyo is a venue which has live art events several times a week. The Artroute guide does not cover all these aspects, since in France the Ministry of Culture has a very specific structure which prevents these disciplines mixing officially for the moment. Performance and live art is covered by the Theatre officers (Conseiller au théâtre) within each DRAC; the complexity of this structure means that performance and live art are not included in Artroute.

The notion of 'creative industries' is one which has yet to find an expression in France. The idea of entrepreneurial initiative in the art scene is still alien, and there is very little merging of public and private initiatives. The failure of the Pinault contemporary art foundation is a major example of the difficulties which France still faces in its attempts to go beyond the "sentiers battus" (or "beaten path").

Business sponsorship has never been a great French tradition but it is slowly growing. New tax laws passed in 2003 encourage private support for the arts. Businesses participate in cultural events by giving financial support to exhibitions, films, restoration projects and so forth. However, it is proving difficult to change the financial focus of the French art scene from State sponsorship to private patronage.

Stephanie Délcroix has written two articles on various aspects of working and exhibiting in France for the a-n website. Read The Hole of Art: Part 1 (on the Centres d'Art structure of galleries) and The Hole of Art: Part 2 (on the processes of public commissioning in France).

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANISATION: An overview of arts funding and policy in France

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.