The contemporary art centre of national interest La Chapelle Jeanne d’Arc de Thouars is a place of reference on the scale of the great west in the field of contemporary art. With the Château d’Oiron and the Syndicat Mixte de la Vallée du Thouet, which carries out a program of public commissions for works of contemporary art, the action of the art centre is carried out in partnership at the scale of the territory of the community of communes of Pays Thouarsais and more broadly, in the north of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Within the region, the art centre is an identified player in the plastic and visual arts network Astre.
Developing an artistic project that takes into account its geographical location and its architectural envelope, a neo-gothic chapel, the art centre maintains a privileged relationship with Thouar’s historical heritage. The guest artists, welcomed in residence or for an exhibition, appropriate the space of the chapel by creating an original work specifically designed for the place. They also take their look at the city, the town planning, the landscape and the rural territory of the Pays Thouarsais and the Thouet Valley. Since 1993, nearly a hundred artists have been invited in residence or for an exhibition project. For several years now, the art centre has paid particular attention to emerging artists from art schools and in particular from higher education institutions in the regional network of the grand huit.
In parallel with its programming, the art centre also acts outside the walls in the form of relocated exhibitions, workshops and events (meetings, conferences, workshops). A mobile device, La Mar(g)elle, was created in 2015 by the artist Marie-Ange Guilleminot in order to offer interventions in partner places, in particular within schools and structures in the social and medical area. For its educational action, the art centre benefits from the action of the municipal art school of Thouars, to which it is linked within the plastic arts department of the City of Thouars.
Director: Martial Deflacieux