Seven French Curators Selected for Museums Next Generation Travel to the US, Advancing Cultural Dialogue

New York, April 10, 2025 – Museums Next Generation, the signature program launched by Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, to foster the vibrancy and relevance of curatorial practice in the US and France, has welcomed seven emerging French curators to the United States for a two-week program of immersion and professional exchange in April 2025.

Now in its third year, Museums Next Generation was launched by Villa Albertine in 2023 to contribute to the advancement of future curators and museum directors that are opened to the world and interested in collaborating more closely between France and the United States.

The seven laureates represent 6 different French regions and varied areas of expertise, from antiquity to contemporary art. In April 2025, they traveled to the United States for a program that will build upon their already rich professional experience. The group is spending one week in Texas and a second week in New York and on the East Coast, visiting institutions including the Kimbell Art Museum, the Menil Collection, the Rothko Chapel, the Clark Art Institute, Mass MoCA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Mohamed Bouabdallah, Cultural Counselor of France and Director of Villa Albertine, spoke to the range of experience of the assembled curators. “This year’s cohort of French curators visiting the United States represent many of the unique aspects of our country’s material culture and history. Collectively, their knowledge will be further enhanced by this immersive experience in two regions of the US known as repositories of the arts.”

The French laureates are

• Sandra Buratti-Hasan, Heritage Curator at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
• Jessica Degain, Heritage Curator at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
• Louise Detrez, Heritage Curator at the Bibliothèque nationale de France à Paris
• Estelle Géraud, Chief Curator at the château-musée de Saumur
• Juliette Lecorne, Curator at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain à Paris
• Laurence Marlin, Heritage Curator responsible for ancient collections at the musée des Antiquités à Rouen
• Grégoire Prangé, Exhbition Curator, responsible for conservation coordination at LaM, Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut à Lille Métropole

For more information about our French laureates, visit our webpage.

A Reciprocal Exchange

In October 2024, seven American curators representing exceptional institutions including the J. Paul Getty Center in California, The Met Cloisters in New York, the Dallas Museum in Texas, and The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, were selected to travel to France for a two-week mission where they gained a comprehensive overview of the workings and practices of French museums.

US participants spoke of the relevance and impact of the Museums Next Generation program. 2024 laureate Rachel Kabukala, Associate Curator of African Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, stated that “Museums Next Generation is one of the few tangible experiences US-based museum curators can point to, to indicate their preparedness for leadership roles in art institutions. There are few training programs available in the US for art museum curators who aspire to management positions or directorships, so Museums Next Gen is a particularly valuable opportunity.”

Villa Albertine’s Call for Applications for the next cohort of American museum professionals is now open. Applications for this program, which will be held from November 3 to November 14, 2025, may be submitted until May 16. For more information and to apply, please visit our webpage.