The Centre Pompidou Is Opening an ‘Art Factory’ in the Suburbs of Paris as a Hub for Conservation and Community Partnerships

The new center will become the museum’s fourth external branch. 

The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, 2015. Photo: Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images.

The Centre Pompidou is continuing to grow. The Paris museum has announced that it will open a new 235,000-square-foot satellite space in the city’s suburbs. 

The new outpost, located in the commune of Massy on the Ile-de-France, is billed as a fabrique de l’art (art factory). It will house the majority of the 120,000 works in the collection of the Musée national d’art moderne, which are currently at the Pompidou, as well as exhibition space and conservation facilities. 

Museum officials say the venue is expected to open in 2025. 

Citing a need to better accommodate its growing collection and share it with the people of France, the Pompidou seeks to “design a new type of reserves,” one that “boasts all the necessary conditions to the preservation of its heritage,” the museum said in a statement. “It will be both a center of excellence for the conservation and restoration of the works in the collection, and a new cultural and creative venue deeply rooted in its territory.”

The Georges Pompidou Center in Paris on September 15, 2019 in Paris, France. Photo: Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images.

The Georges Pompidou Center in Paris. Photo: Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images.

Co-funded by the country’s Ministry of Culture, the Région Ile-de-France, and the Department of Essonne, the new branch will aim to connect the community with local cultural organizations and figures, according to the announcement.

In addition to hosting “live shows, performances, conferences, screenings, and workshops,” an outside curator will be invited annually to mount a show from the museum’s collection and create a slate of educational programs with local schools. The museum will also offer professional apprenticeships and research opportunities for students.

The news of the art factory comes just weeks before the museum’s most recent expansion effort—an outpost in Shanghai called the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museumopens to the public. Occupying a 270,000-square-foot wing of the David Chipperfield-designed West Bund Art Museum, the space will host its official inauguration in the first week of November with a pair of shows curated from the Pompidou’s collection.

The museum also operates a “pop-up” branch in Málaga, Spain, a project which was renewed for another five years in 2018. Meanwhile, a fourth outpost is planned to open in Brussels in 2023.


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