History of a contemporary heritage
Diversity and uniqueness of the collection
The 35,000 works acquired by the twenty-three FRAC structures reflect an ambitious and selective approach to the most innovative artistic endeavours, mainly produced since the 1960s by artists from five continents.
These twenty-three entities boast a wide range of distinct aspects and visions of contemporary art as reflected in the acquisition policies defined by each director within the framework of their chosen artistic and cultural project. To help define this policy and select the artworks a technical acquisitions committee is formed from voluntary members, both French and non-French, including art critics, museum curators, art centre directors, exhibition commissioners, artists, leading figures and private collectors.
Mindful of the work of emerging artists, the collections introduce varying degrees of mainstream and more unusual works each comprising 500 to 4,000 works: paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, videos, installations, architectural models…
Half of the artists are French and 33% are women.
Works are purchased from artists and galleries to expand the collections. This is made possible through annual allocations assigned by the state and regional councils, sometimes supplemented by other local communities or patrons.
Many of the FRAC also commission or produce works, in particular for individual or group exhibitions, residencies, or by involving an artist in a project of dissemination, publishing or cultural outreach.
Artists and generous collectors also donate to help enrich the collections.
Videomuseum, our collections management partner
Since being established the twenty-three FRAC structures have devoted substantial efforts to the management and documentation of their collections, particularly through information technology.
A managerial and consultation tool created by the association Vidéomuseum (Paris) compiles all the works acquired since their creation by French public collections (including the FRAC) and provides access to the results of their painstaking documentation and cataloguing work.
What kind of works in the Frac collections?
Distribution of work types in all Frac
