Normandy is renowned for its art and music, but that hasn’t stopped it making its mark as a creative hub with the region’s RN13BIS contemporary art network. Marie Pleintel is at the helm of the network that brings together a hundred artists, curators and cultural venues from all over Normandy. What’s the idea? Support the visual arts in their structure and development. Let’s find out more.

A collaborative and supportive network

“RN13BIS is here to support the art community and tie into the work of DRAC plastic art consultants, council cultural departments and contemporary art venues in the area,” says Marie Pleintel, head of the network founded in 2010. RN13BIS brings the entire Normandy contemporary art scene together (art colleges, exhibition centres or residencies) to not only help artists and institutions to connect, but also provide easier access to resources and career opportunities.

Information sessions, networking events, training courses: it does everything it can to support artists, and any professional, to build their career and connect with their peers in and outside Normandy: “We’re here to help them and implement schemes to support the art community,” says Marie Pleintel.

Just take Présences, annual networking events where 40 artists can mingle with art centre managers, curators and art critics from all over France. “We also host day-long events with career exploration experiences that bring exhibition, production and work spaces together. You spend the day visiting places on a bus with twenty professionals, so you can mingle and often stay in touch afterwards.”

Visual arts in Normandy
© Camille Fallet

Leading institutions

They include Frac (regional contemporary art foundations) with a major collection touring the entire region, plus three major contemporary art venues: Le Point du Jour in Cherbourg, Centre photographique Rouen Normandie and Galerie Duchamp in Yvetot. These structures join forces to provide artists with a space to inspire their creativity and promote their pieces. Then there are the likes of Normandie Impressionniste and École des Impatiences in terms of festivals and off-site possibilities, which there are lots of in the region.

Normandy, a major platform for Visual Arts and Contemporary Creations

RN13BIS hasn’t stopped expanding since 2010 and now brings together 25 art venues and up to 160 artists in its Traverses contemporary artist repertoire. “Normandy is a breeding ground for contemporary art, it’s so full of artistic events and resources,” says Marie Pleintel. What sets Normandy apart is the diversity and wealth of its artistic resources, captured by the RN13BIS’s annual art review, Insert.

The rn13bis.fr website is a gateway for contemporary art lovers and professionals, listing information about previews, current calls for projects and upcoming residencies. “Countless artists are drawn to Normandy because it inspires creativity and is close to the French capital.” The region’s appeal is fuelled by Normandy collectives, the French government and DRAC Normandy, who have joined forces to promote visual arts as part of the 2023-2027 visual arts agreement in Normandy. It has been signed by an unprecedented number of figures: “Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Rouen and Métropole Rouen Normandie Councils, Calvados and Seine-Maritime départements, Normandy Region and Normandy DRAC (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs)… It’s a fantastic result! “

Normandy has always been an artistic hotspot. Just take the Impressionists. Or Marcel Duchamp. Lots of artists still come here to live, study at the region's two art colleges and bring fantastic projects to life.

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