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Any person who wishes to do so can, in cooperation with others, commission a work of contemporary art from an artist, with an aim of general interest!

Presentation leaflet
I Télécharger la version web
I Télécharger la version print

Art commissions accompanied and produced by thankyouforcoming
I I Like Politics Too, by Marie Voignier
I Les langues comme objets migrateurs, by Marianne Mispelaëre

Projects around the world
I France
I Belgium
I Switzerland
I Germany
I Spain
I Italy

Developed since 30 years ago with the support of the Fondation de France, the artistic protocol of the New Patrons has led to the creation of more than 500 works in France and throughout the world, in a wide variety of contexts and disciplines: visual arts, design, architecture, theatre, literature, cinema, science and even comics.

From 2023 onwards, the Société des Nouveaux commanditaires will be piloting, organising and federating this citizen commissioning process, a true art of democracy implemented with the mediators in each region of France.

The origins of the programme
The New Patrons were born out of the encounter between an artist's desire and an institution's project. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Fondation de France developed a cultural programme in line with its mission: to support initiatives by citizens who, together, take up problems of general interest; to support, as a priority, innovative approaches that provide tomorrow's solutions; and to encourage encounters between the various actors in society. She also wanted to include artistic production in her work.

It entrusted this mission to François Hers, himself an artist, who sought to renew the methods of artistic production around two main issues: bringing society closer to its artists, and giving art a use value by anchoring it in issues that directly concern citizens.

The New Patrons action: an innovative artistic production protocol
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the New Patrons project has enabled citizens who are dealing with social issues or the development of a territory to involve contemporary artists in their concerns by commissioning them to produce a work. Its originality is based on a new conjunction between three privileged parties: the artist, the commissioning citizens, and the cultural mediator approved by the Fondation de France, accompanied by public and private partners gathered around the project.

It is based on three stages:

1/ Anyone who wishes to do so can take up a social issue (requalifying or giving a new identity to a place or site, reviving a centuries-old tradition in a contemporary way, responding to a need for development, meaning or revitalisation of social links, etc.), so that a contemporary artist can create a work for the public symbolising this theme and the issue raised.

2/ A cultural mediator accompanies the citizens in the elaboration of their commission: together, they write a set of specifications. The mediator suggests one or more artists to produce the work envisaged. Public and private partners are then involved in the project.

3/ An artist takes up the subject proposed by the citizens and invents the form he or she wishes to give to the work.

How can artworks change society?
How can we respond to the needs of representation, or of a symbolic and artistic nature, that each and every one of us may have to face in society?
In a democratic society, how can we allow any citizen who feels the need to do so to ask an artist to commission a work?
How can we think of art in society beyond the institution and the art market, by investing it with a new social life?

Implementation throughout the country, in a variety of contexts
In France and in Europe, nearly 500 works have been produced or are underway to date, half of them in rural areas, and in a wide variety of contexts: urban, suburban or rural municipalities, public spaces or institutions (schools, hospitals, prisons), associations, etc.

The New Patrons action has also been taken up in European countries, notably in Belgium, Italy, Germany, England, Norway and Switzerland, as well as in Africa.

And in the South East?
"Anyone who wants to can take responsibility for commissioning a work of art and participate in the emergence of an art of democracy."

Claire Migraine / thankyouforcoming is an accredited mediator to develop the New Patrons action.

Do you have an idea? A project? Information about this scheme? Become a sponsor?

Contact-us !