On July the 4th of 2025, the state label “Centre culturel de rencontre” (CCR) was awarded to the project to renovate the former slaughterhouse in the commune of Saint-Esprit, Martinique, which has become the EPIC Les Coulisses – Center for Arts, Heritage, and Creation. This project thus becomes the 23rd French heritage site to receive the label and the first in the overseas territories.
This national recognition is the culmination of a long-term project launched in 2021, focused on heritage preservation, contemporary writing, live performance, and the transmission of popular memories.
Under the impetus of Mayor Fred-Michel Tirault and with the coordination of Yaïssa Arnaud-Bolivar, Director of Culture, the city has carried out an ambitious preliminary program in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Affairs, artists, academics, local partners, and experts from the national network of CCRs. Residencies, study missions, writing workshops, performances, and festive events have marked these founding years, allowing the future Cultural Meeting Center to test and demonstrate its capacity for hosting, creation, mediation, and dissemination.
The creation in September 2024 of a dedicated public institution—EPIC Les Coulisses—has made it possible to establish autonomous governance, a necessary condition for obtaining the label.
On July the 4th, the mayor of the town welcomed many guests from the cultural world of Martinique, the regional prefect Etienne Desplanques, the sub-prefect of Le Marin, Bastien Mérot, and the director of cultural affairs, Johan-Hilel Hamel, to the covered market to sign the prefectural decree awarding the Centre culturel de rencontre label.
A place to create, share, and shine
“As I like to say, culture is not an adjustment variable. It is a real lever for territorial transformation and a driver of social, economic, and identity-based innovation,” explains Fred-Michel Tirault.
The CCR is based on several axes, ranging from heritage, with the rehabilitation of an emblematic site and the promotion of local memories, to creation, with artist residencies and the organization of festivals, to education, through workshops, mediation actions, and school partnerships, as well as international cooperation, particularly with West Africa and the Caribbean.
In Saint-Esprit, where many monuments are listed or registered, the former municipal slaughterhouse now houses the CCR, becoming a living space, a place for transmission and exchange.
A dynamic approach to sustainable and inclusive development
More than just a cultural facility, “this CCR is designed to be a strategic pillar of local development,” aiming to boost the economy through tourism and artistic attractions (accommodation, restaurants, events), while strengthening the social fabric by involving residents, from young people to seniors, in artistic projects.
It gives culture a new place in the Martinican economy and is part of a dynamic that is local, regional, national, and international.
In this context, a partnership has been initiated with the John Smith International Cultural Center in Ouidah, an associate member of the ACCR in Benin. "A crucial South-South partnership to initiate intercultural dialogues around Afro-descendant diasporas. “
*page based on the articles ”Le Saint-Esprit aux portes de la reconnaissance nationale : une labellisation qui change tout“ published on July 2 by Antilla, and ”Faire de la culture un véritable atout d'attractivité" published by Axelle Dorville on July 24 on EWAG.