This year, Louvre Lens Vallée (LLV), a gas pedal of creative talent, celebrates its 10th anniversary. Housed in a former elementary school, LLV is a creative playground for entrepreneurs, students, citizens, creators, artists and designers. Following a learning trip with companies and institutions to Lens and Douai in March 2023 (see article Making the most of our heritage, a territorial, societal and environmental challenge), Antoine Roland spoke to its director, Margherita Balzerani, about her career path, and the projects and ambitions she wishes to give impetus and impetus to this place of innovation.
1. AR – To begin with, could you tell us a little about your career path? How did it lead you to take the helm at Louvre Lens Vallée?
MB – Italian by birth, I define myself above all as European, with the spirit of openness that this definition can impart. I came to France in 2001 to study art history at the Sorbonne on an Erasmus scholarship. I then strengthened this path with an MBA at Novancia Business School, with the desire to become an entrepreneur. Beyond my studies, my love of art and contemporary creation led me to work as a cultural mediator at the Palais de Tokyo. Now an exhibition curator, I’ve always been interested in the “cross-permeability between disciplines” to create happy crossings that push back the boundaries between creative territories: video games/contemporary art, art/science, and so on. From 2009 to 2011, I founded and was artistic director of 3 editions of theAtopic Festival (hosted by Universcience and La Gaîté Lyrique, among others).
2009 also saw the launch of our first mission in the north of France, to support the structuring and promotion of the design industry (Lille design) and help Lille Métropole become one of the major international design capitals by 2020.
The north then called me again in 2015 to create and host the Salon International des Métiers d’Art (350 exhibitors, 22,000 visitors). This free event is open to all, with three main aims: to inspire vocations, to showcase professionals (workshops, individual companies, VSEs and EPVs) and to promote exceptional expertise. A Cité Internationale des Métiers d’Art was even envisaged in Lens, but the project was never implemented.
With such a passion for innovation in culture, Louvre Lens Vallée brings together everything I’ve been able to do in the field to explore and enhance innovation with creative people, craftsmen and designers. It was the project I’d always dreamed of bringing to fruition, and it arrived at the right place and the right time.
2. AR – What are the main thrusts
and dynamics that you set in motion on your arrival?
MB – Unlike other projects, where everything had to be done and built, when I arrived at Louvre Lens vallée, a competent team was already in place, the project had already been running for 9 years, all that remained was to give it a new ambition, a new impetus, to embody it and build the strategy for the next 10 years.
For me, Lens, or the Greater Artois region, is a testing ground for what’s possible, where we feel charged with a collective challenge to rewrite this territory and contribute to changing its image, while building on and enhancing what makes it its identity and strength. A region that, in the wake of deindustrialization, has opted for transition through culture, innovation and the circular economy.
The Louvre Lens (5 million visitors since its opening, 70% of whom come from the region), whose brand we carry in our name, has of course had a major impact on this repositioning. In our valley, it’s not the only one: we’re surrounded by mountains that we rely on and that contribute to this strong and unique territorial identity (the mining basin is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site): Bollaert stadium, Musée du Louvre Paris Conservation Centre, Pinault Foundation, etc.
In 2013, when Louvre Lens Vallée was created, the incubator of the New Museum in New York was born: the NEW INC. In France, it remains the only museum incubator.
While LLV is helping to bring the Louvre to life in a new way, it is also inspiring all those involved in culture in the Hauts-de-France region. As a reminder, when the Louvre Lens was created, 8,000 residents of the Lens-Liévin conurbation signed up to support the museum’s move to the area. On the strength of this original act, local residents are now stakeholders in the life of the museum, in its DNA, and contribute to the definition of its scientific and cultural project.
While Louvre Lens is a museum at the heart of the Cité, we are a local incubator serving the 85 museums in the region, in conjunction with our partner Museonor. In 10 years, LLV has supported 128 project leaders, 75% of whom are still based in the region. These projects have helped raise 7 million euros and created over 120 jobs in the region (not including the founders), in addition to those created by the Louvre Lens, the CCL and its ecosystem, which extends beyond culture (real estate programs, tourist services, hotels, restaurants, etc.).
Louvre Lens Vallée is also opening up internationally. Identified and recognized as a totem by the French Touch, the incubator, like the companies it supports (such as Gigascope, which creates scans for the British Museum), contributes to the development of French cultural soft power.
3. AR – What are your future
projects?
MB – We want to consolidate our position in the cultural and heritage sector. To this end, our next call for applications, which will be launched in June, will focus on innovations linked to the preservation, conservation and mediation of collections, at the service of museums and cultural players.
Eco-responsibility is a key issue in the cultural sector, and an integral part of our support. We are working with local companies to create carbon diagnosis tools. A manifesto resulting from the last Culturathon we organized in October 2022 will be signed at the end of the year by the 7 cultural institutions that took part (Ministère de la Culture, Culture Commune Scène Nationale, 99-Bis-Métaphone, ALL, Autour du Louvre Lens, Le Centre de Conservation du Louvre Paris, le Louvre Lens, Live Nation with the Main Square Festival).
The question of inclusion is also at the heart of our concerns in a deindustrialized area such as Lens:
- For several years now, we have been hosting the Pop School, to train young people in digital professions.
- We are also contributing, in conjunction with Pôle Emploi, to raising jobseekers’ awareness of the CCI sectors, this project is linked with the Louvre Lens, which since 2017 has developed ” L’Art d’accéder à l’emploi ” with the idea that a museum is no longer just a place for preserving a heritage but can encourage personal development and the enhancement of key skills to (re)find a job, and regain self-confidence.
- We are also committed to promoting female entrepreneurship.
- Finally, to better integrate art and culture into the company, we’re going to see how artists and creative people can multiply their actions within companies: creation of artist residencies, rental of works through the creation of an art library, creation of creative and artistic image banks, and so on.
In conclusion, in the wake of Covid, we need a sense of direction to develop cultural projects that are more human, more inclusive, more eco-responsible, and so on. Louvre Lens Vallée aims to become a gateway for supporting, developing and highlighting unique and innovative projects for museums and cultural players. A gas pedal of creative talent! .
Many thanks to Margherita Balzerani for her time and availability.
