Charte CCR France

The Charter of Centre Culturel de Rencontre, 1992


The mission of the Cultural Encounter Centres is to achieve a synthesis between a large monument which has lost its original function and an ambitious intellectual and artistic project which ensures its rescue and its rehabilitation.
They combine two major cultural objectives : the safeguard of our heritage and the rooting of cultural development. Laboratories of experimentation on the animation of heritage and the continuing discourse between heritage and creation, they also integrate the dimension of enterprise.
They represent the result of parallel experiments undertaken in various places since 1972, experiments which make it possible today to consider the concerted implementation of common goals.

Three elements of a concerned effort

In order for a Cultural Encounter Centre to function, there are three distinct aspects of the project that work in conjunction to one another and are united within the framework of an explicitly defined complex project.

A major historic monument : rehabilitation and development.

The Cultural Encounter Centres take charge of permanent projects situated in major listed historic buildings; they contribute to their restoration and maintenance, even if the Cultural Encounter Centres do not actually own the property.By “monument” one means a living and working environment of a community which has now disappeared but is still inscribed in the fabric and organization of this space. The exceptional characteristics of the architecture and the valuable quality of the monument constitute the essential criteria. The spiritual, intellectual or social importance of the past contribute to the recognition of the monument as a significant site, charged with symbols for our time.
The monument is both an autonomous reality and a mediator. Far from obstructing its access, the presence of the Cultural Encounter Centre must encourage it, facilitate and enrich it, in particular through well-organised visits, the creation of analytical tools and the study of original activities. Even when it is only motivated by the desire to explore a heritage site, the general public is offered welcome to partake in a visit as well as the intellectual and artistic activities of the Cultural Encounter Centre. These activities, in exchange, allow visitors to rediscover the monument from an enriched perspective. The connection between the monument and the general activity of the Cultural Encounter Centre is always highlighted, so that there is no contradiction or conflict with the traditional tourist activities.
In the same spirit, whenever possible, the restoration of the monument takes place at the same time as the development of the activities of the Cultural Encounter Centre. Thus the restoration finds its justification in this symbiosis.


Capacity to have receptions and offer services : Conference and seminar infrastructure

Despite their public nature, these monuments -rooted in the fabric of urban life or in a more secluded environment- are always conducive to individual and collective work. Since the activities that they house are focused on the idea of encounters or meetings, these places are equipped with lodging available for the participants. That is why a Cultural Encounter Centre can accommodate within its complex, or in the vicinity, one or several groups of a few dozen people for several days.
The lodging is open both for the activities proposed by the Cultural Encounter Centre and for seminars and meetings organised at the request of external organisations, subject to payment. This partially commercial activity gives the Cultural Encounter Centre more diversified resources, reinforces its integration in the social fabric, and allows it create links with the economic world. All of this is coherent with the general philosophy of the Cultural Encounter Centres. Based on past experiences, relationships are often built between those who spend time together in the centres. This partnership is very much a part of the philosophy as well. Promoting closer ties between the economy and culture, it paves the way to a policy of patronage. Finally, it underlines the Cultural Encounter Centres’ characteristic of being cultural enterprises.

An activity of intellectual and artistic production

The Cultural Encounter Centres try to encourage interpersonal communication among certain groups within a framework favourable to the transmission and exchange of knowledge, and in some cases, to collective creation.
Researchers’ and artists’ residences are one of the major tools. The activities are built around their presence, to the benefit of the participants in each of the respective specialities, in their training (of professionals or amateurs) or production (preparation of work, exhibitions and performances). This activity must be approached with a very open-minded spirit.
Their field of intervention is therefore prior to cultural dissemination, located between higher education and support given to the nascent creative process.
It extends to new territories and original forms of expression, whether they belong to the past, present or future and to the margins of the modes of expression and communication. It encompasses the points of contact between economy and culture.

The Encounter Centres are first and foremost places of work for professionals and specialists, testing-grounds for research and creation; that is why the distribution of their own production in situ is not a priority. However, this collective work must be geared towards public consumption even though the audience can be limited in numbers when it plays an active part. Large public events related to the research topics must also be encouraged to introduce works of art to a wider audience. Moreover, the Cultural Encounter Centres seek to create original points of contact between the public and creation.
Generally, the mission of the Cultural Encounter Centres entails that they can be the producers of their own activities, and that they have the necessary technical and financial means. They must also have a very broad autonomy in the choice of their work objectives.

An intellectual and artistic project

The three axes of work described above are further developed by each Cultural Encounter Centre within the general framework of a clearly-defined intellectual and artistic project, which it establishes in consideration of the spirit of the monument, as possibilities that it can offer and that belong to it.
Established with research, training and creation in mind, this project is experimental, dynamic and progressive. It linksseveral areas of specialities and fields of research, supports thematic cross-pollination, and offers the project the opportunity to evolve with time, without rupture.
The project of each centre reflects the obvious shortcomings in the cultural development of its sphere of influence. It searches to be complementary to the cultural institutions of the particular territory, in a demanding and innovative spirit.
The efforts to reach a synthesis are represented by the project of each centre and can only be achieved if the whole monument, all activities and the supervision of its restoration is under a single direction. The manner in which this organisation is run depends on the management team of the Cultural Encounter Centre, who is in charge of the defining and carrying out the project. Aiming for such an objective can only lead us towards excellence, the only justification for the development of a Cultural Encounter Centre and without which the monument, which is its raison d’être, would fall into vulgarisation. The centres are important places, because of the monument itself of course but also because of the extent of the interest and the ambition that animates them.
This objective supposes the fast acquisition of a critical mass without which the company could not attach its management team of qualified personalities to it in a sufficient number, neither to show an economic importance which will be the pledge of its intellectual competence, nor to be recognised as a reference and partner beyond the local environment.
With the support of the network of professional relationships that they have created, the Cultural Encounter Centres are privileged places of contact and co-operation between the State, the local authorities, the cultural field and enterprises. They are one of the major achievements of decentralisation.
Important places, whose aim is to become intellectual and artistic centres of reference, the Cultural Encounter Centres are naturally part of the regional, national and international framework. In Europe, they are to become the backbone of a network of cultural establishments, a network that they actively contribute to set up.

Expansion of a community

Stemming from the idea of encounter that they strive to materialise, the centres could not be satisfied with just their individual work. Through their association, they cooperate in network. This association is in no way a form of control, but a professional organisation founded with the support of the national fund of historic buildings and the public authorities. Its mission is to ensure their collective development through the exchange of experience and information, reflection jointly carried out, and the search for complementary relationships between the various establishments. This collaboration is necessary to make the very concept of Cultural Encounter Centres live and evolve, to accommodate new members, to develop bonds with the like-minded French establishments, to seek a dialogue with other experiences abroad, and to assess their work and actions within a European framework.
The association must maintain contact with the official services (although it is not the only partner), and offers a conceptual and technical framework for the conception of projects which share the same objectives. Within the association, each centre develops its own identity and preserves its full autonomy.
The Cultural Encounter Centres are not defined as an administrative category of cultural establishments, nor as a single legal and financial framework. The membership of such or such category of organisation does not necessarily entail admission within the group; the management of a historic building does not either. Each centre endeavours, like a company, to develop its own resources and guarantee its autonomy of management as much as possible. The label “Cultural Encounter Centres” is the property of the association. The label “Centre Culturel de Rencontre” is the property of the associaton. It is granted by the Ministry of Culture on a proposal of the National Committee of Cultural Encounters Centres (CNCCR). ACCR is member of the CNCCR. (modification 1996)
In addition to respecting the spirit of the overall project, the association requires certain guarantees, pertaining to legal matters, and to the presence, with a status which organises the autonomy of the establishment, of specific clauses defining its public and non-lucrative nature, as well as its relationship to the monument which is not necessarily ownership but often a long-term lease.

To succeed

The success of the Cultural Encounter Centres and their achievements are due to the quality of the synthesis they achieve between all the constituent parts, like the strength of the links they have been able to develop with their close and distant environment. Onsite research and artistic creation, are a privileged illustration of this.

This success endows the revived monuments with a true intellectual, economic and social meaning, worthy of their history, thus, justifying the effort made by the community to ensure their rebirth.