©Fondation Blachère
This foundation established by businessman Jean-Paul Blachère has promoted the work of contemporary African artists since 2004 as part of a five-year programme. The Fondation Blachère develops projects in the aim of heightening awareness of African artists while helping these artists to establish themselves in the art market.
Each year, the foundation invites African artists specialising in the visual arts and dedicated to dialogue between the cultures to live and work for a certain time in its Artists’ House in Apt, France. In the Arts Centre opened in 2005, each year the foundation organises three or four exhibitions and hosts workshops in which different generations of established and up-and-coming artists from Africa and other continents meet in the context of a joint project, work together and have an opportunity to engage in creative dialogue with one another. Here, art students, grammar-school students and local residents also have an opportunity to meet and discuss with the artists. The Cultural Centre of the Fondation Blachère also includes a sales boutique where African crafts are offered for sale, as well as a documentation centre with a library and a bookshop in which works in sociology and history, artists’ monographs and exhibition catalogues are available for study and purchase.
