Towards a renewal of public cultural policy

France has a rich cultural and artistic landscape and is home to an abundance of vibrant creative spirit, a reality that owes much to a long, drawn-out process that has resulted in the development of various cultural instruments and policies. The intervention of the State, and later the regional authorities, in the cultural sphere since the 1950s has been governed by two democratic requirements, these being to perform public service missions and fight cultural inequalities, and to create and sustain an environment conducive to freedom of creation for artists.