Since 1992, DCA has been a national network gathering 50 contemporary art centres across France. Located in urban, suburban, and rural areas, DCA’s member art centres operate in 12 of the 13 metropolitan regions. Supported by the Ministry of Culture, DCA is one of the leading networks, a driving force in French cultural policy, ensuring a nationwide network of art centres to facilitate access to culture and creation.

The DCA association’s mission is to bring together French contemporary art centres with the aim of:

• Promoting access to contemporary creation and fostering the influence of the French artistic scene, aimed at all audiences, in France and abroad;
• Increasing the national and international visibility of the contemporary art centres’ specific activities through events in France and abroad;
• Facilitating artists and contemporary art professionals’ mobility through the development of artistic and cultural cooperation on an international scale with other contemporary art networks and organizations;
• Upholding and promoting its members’ interests;
• Strengthening contemporary art centres’ development by fostering information and experience exchange between network members, and the implementation of collaborative projects;
• Contributing to the knowledge, professionalization and structuring of the visual arts sector, in collaboration with the other professional organisations within the field;
• Answering to requests for expertise and advice received.

DCA is supported in all its activities by Direction Générale de la Création Artistique - ministère de la Culture.

For its projects, DCA receives or has received support from l’Institut français, from l’ADAGP, and from the Fondation des Artistes.

DCA is a member of the Conseil National des Professions des Arts Visuels.

DCA is a member of the CIPAC — Fédération des professionnels de l’art contemporain.

DCA is partner of Documents d’artistes network and a member of the committee ElaineAlain.