And it's made of different studios where you have a living space and a working space. So, it means that the artists come live and work in the same space. This stems from a very 20th-century idea and concept which was the need for Paris to provide itself with proper accommodation and working spaces for artists. There are some memories of Picasso and the likes struggling all through winter in horrid conditions precisely because there was no adequate infrastructure for artists, so that was why the two people, mostly one person, Félix Brunau, decided that he wanted to build a Cité Internationale des Arts for artists to come for temporary residencies. It was founded by Félix Brunau then, who was an architect and much more, also a diplomat, and an extraordinary figure of the 20th century, but it gets all sorts of public support from the Minister of Culture, the City of Paris, and also the Academie des Beaux-Arts, which actually provided some assistance when Cité Internationale des Arts was conceived. "
Doctor in English studies and lecturer at the University of Paris-Diderot until 2002, Bénédicte Alliot was Director of the French Institute of South Africa in Johannesburg (2002-2006), then Cultural Attaché at the French Embassy in New Delhi, India (2006-2010). She then headed the Cultural Seasons unit at the Institut Français in Paris. Since early 2016, Bénédicte Alliot has been the Executive Director of the Cité internationale des arts, a residency centre that welcomes 326 artists, writers, filmmakers, dancers, playwrights, etc. from more than 100 countries located in the centre of Paris, in the Marais and Montmartre districts.
· www.citedesartsparis.net
· www.creativeprocess.info