The idea and need behind opening such a villa across the\u00a0 Atlantic\u00a0 date\u00a0 back\u00a0 a\u00a0 long\u00a0 way.\u00a0 But\u00a0 the\u00a0 historical\u00a0 model\u00a0 of\u00a0 residency\u00a0 villas\u00a0 that\u00a0 host\u00a0 a\u00a0 cooperative\u00a0 of\u00a0 residents\u00a0 in\u00a0 a\u00a0 unique\u00a0 location\u00a0 reveals\u00a0 its\u00a0 limits\u00a0 when\u00a0 transposed to the United States. Indeed, no American city, not even New York, can alone embody the broad range of cultural dynamics that make the US the leading professional destination among French cultural players, and the world\u2019s chief influencer. Think Los Angeles for cinema, San Francisco for digital technology, Chicago for architecture, New Orleans for jazz, Atlanta for urban culture, or Washington, DC, for museums. Given this marked\u00a0 plurality,\u00a0 how\u00a0 does\u00a0 one\u00a0 invent\u00a0 a\u00a0 ubiquitous\u00a0 residency villa that hosts its residents wherever they need to go?<\/p>\n
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Beyond\u00a0 the\u00a0 geography\u00a0 of\u00a0 US\u00a0 culture,\u00a0 the\u00a0 aspirations\u00a0 of today\u2019s cultural players require a residency that is less standardized, more flexible, and better supported. Through Villa Albertine, France\u2019s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs wanted to rise to these challenges by offering tailor-made exploratory residencies that would meet the American desires of French cultural players and the need to refresh American perceptions of our cultural scene. To fulfill this aim, Villa Albertine operates through a novel concept\u2013a villa on the scale of a country larger than Europe, rooted in multiple locations, offering personalized support, and made up of eighty people spread over ten branches in America\u2019s major cities: Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; New Orleans, LA; Miami, FL; Atlanta, GA; Washington, DC; and New York, NY, where it is headquartered.Each year, several dozens of residents will be hosted, not as a collective, but one by one in the city of their choice. They will be housed individually in places that belong to France, like Villa Albertine San Francisco; in an American collector\u2019s home, as in Los Angeles; or in a rented property that best meets their criteria, as in New York. Above all, residents will be invited to get out of their place of residency to explore its territory and form part of\u00a0 the\u00a0 surrounding\u00a0 community,\u00a0 alongside\u00a0 Americans\u00a0 themselves. It is not the resident who will adapt to Villa Albertine, but Villa Albertine that will adapt to the resident.<\/p>\n
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This inaugural season is not a manifesto. It is an initial attempt\u00a0 to\u00a0 put\u00a0 eighty\u00a0 residents\u00a0 on\u00a0 America\u2019s\u00a0 roads\u00a0 for one year, each resident spending several weeks, or months, in the US. These residents, men and women in\u00a0 equal\u00a0 measure,\u00a0 ages\u00a0 ranging from\u00a0 twenty-two to sixty-five, are not supposed to cross paths in space or time. They are spread all over the United States. Most of them are French, but some do not live in France, and some come from other regions of the world. These choreographers, novelists, museum directors, designers, historians, graphic novelists, geographers, art historians, photographers, astronomers, DJs, composers, journalists, orchestra conductors, festival directors, filmmakers, architects, and plastic artists have been chosen alongside forty French cultural institutions for the diversity of their profiles, the strength of their artistic or intellectual approaches, and the relevance of their projects.<\/p>\n
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This\u00a0 season\u00a0 will\u00a0 also\u00a0 be\u00a0 supported\u00a0 by\u00a0 around\u00a0 fifteen\u00a0 professional\u00a0 mentoring\u00a0 programs\u00a0 covering\u00a0 the\u00a0 main\u00a0 fields of artistic creation and cultural industry. Through these various initiatives, Villa Albertine expresses the conviction that, in a world in crisis, cultural players should not just be supported; they can, and should, help us grasp today\u2019s big challenges\u2013the digitalization of our world (San Francisco), cultural revolutions (Los Angeles), revived\u00a0 space\u00a0 exploration\u00a0 (Houston),\u00a0 environmental\u00a0 emergencies (Miami), upheavals in knowledge (Boston), and\u00a0 reinvented\u00a0 urban\u00a0 development\u00a0 (Chicago).\u00a0 Villa\u00a0 Albertine is a new kind of think tank. It puts cultural creators, thinkers, and professionals at the heart of an America which is seen as the utopian\/dystopian crucible of tomorrow\u2019s world. It gives them a voice throughout their project via an online magazine, and on social media. And it believes in the transformative power of exploratory residencies that are designed to change the outlook of its residents as much as that of those who cross their paths.<\/p>\n\t\n\t\tDiscover the residents of the inaugural season\t<\/a>\n\t\n","protected":false},"featured_media":61871,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-61873","app_villa_article","type-app_villa_article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n