Fond Régional d'Art Contemporain (Frac)

The Fonds Régionaux d'Art Contemporain (FRAC) are public collections of contemporary art established in 1982 at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture as part of a decentralization policy aimed at bringing contemporary art closer to the public in every region of France.

Its primary missions are:

• to build a collection of international contemporary art through regular acquisitions of works;
• to disseminate this collection through exhibitions, loans, deposits, and publications;
• to make contemporary art accessible to all through outreach activities developed from the collection and exhibitions.

Unlike museums or art centers, FRAC are not tied to a single exhibition venue. Their collections travel throughout the regions, across France, and internationally. By expanding their activities in the regions, they have built a network of partners: museums, art centers, municipal spaces, art schools, and educational institutions... Through their mobility, the FRAC define themselves as key players in the cultural development of the region, helping to reduce geographical and cultural disparities.

The "FRAC Collections" portal brings together all works acquired from 1981 to the present. It presents each FRAC, provides a link to its website, and compiles aggregate and individualized data through a series of questions and answers.

The FRAC Poitou-Charentes presents 2 to 3 contemporary art exhibitions per year at its Angoulême site. The schedule of temporary exhibitions is available on the FRAC’s website.

The documentation center provides a gateway to contemporary art and facilitates in-depth artistic research. As a resource center serving both internal and external audiences, it responds to requests for information, training, and research. This specialized collection in contemporary art, comprising over 7,000 works, includes monographic catalogs, catalogs of solo and group exhibitions, periodicals (about twenty subscriptions), theoretical works, critical essays, and artists’ writings.