France has 363 museums classified as “Musées de France” located in rural areas, representing more than 30 percent of all museums with this designation. These institutions preserve a wide variety of works and objects that reflect the artistic and historical heritage of the country and the cultural wealth of local communities.
Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, has committed to more actively supporting the municipalities managing these rural museums, especially those planning renovation projects or aiming to expand their cultural offerings. Speaking from the Museum of Modern Art in Céret, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, she announced a dedicated 4 million euro budget for 2025. This funding is intended to help rural museums manage and enhance their collections while improving the visitor experience.
Through the regional cultural affairs directorates in mainland France and overseas, more than 150 initiatives across the country will receive financial support. This includes exhibition room renovations, updates to permanent displays and signage, collection restoration, storage upgrades, security improvements, new exhibition production, and catalogue publications.
Another key action under the Plan Culture et Ruralité is the creation of a national guide cataloging rural museums. A call for submissions launched at the end of 2024 received a strong response, resulting in 160 museums being featured in the web application “Musées de France – Itinéraires en territoire rural,” available since 13 May 2025 and developed with the GrandPalaisRmn. A print edition of this regional collection guide, authored by art historian Camille Vieville and with a preface by art historian and writer Thomas Schlesser, will be released in the fall.
The Minister has also requested that national museums increase their engagement with rural institutions. The goal is to expand partnerships and promote the circulation of works from national collections, along with the development of joint exhibitions.
Several examples illustrate this approach. The Centre Pompidou has extended its reach to numerous towns through the MuMo mobile museum and the travelling exhibition “En voyage,” active since January, along with its “Constellations” loan program. The Musée d’Orsay is showcasing works in about thirty venues as part of the initiative “One Hundred Works that Tell the Climate.” The Musée Guimet has loaned twenty works to the town of Digne-les-Bains for a four-year exhibition. The Musée Rodin has partnered with the community of Gien through its Studio Rodin program, making reproductions of the artist’s sculptures more widely accessible.
