Public Affairs
Cultural Affairs
The Cultural Affairs Office is the part of the Public Affairs Section that has responsibility for administering the U.S. Department of State’s educational and cultural activities in France. It offers a full and varied range of cultural and exchange visitor programs that focus on issues of bilateral interest and are organized in coordination with French private and government institutions.
Speaker and Specialist Programs
The U.S. Speaker and Specialist program is designed to bring U.S. experts from a variety of fields to France to share U.S. experiences of professional relevance with French counterparts and allow an exchange of viewpoints on subjects of common interest. Programs include conferences, seminars, lectures and other public events often organized in cooperation with French academic, cultural, and professional institutions. Speaker and Specialist events are held throughout France.
Education
The Cultural Affairs Office interacts with public and private educational institutions in the United States and France as well as with both countries' Ministries of Education to develop and implement a wide variety of programs in support of common education goals.
Support is also provided for the American Studies community throughout France – students, teachers and scholars whose professional focus is American society and culture, past and present.
Fulbright Program
The bilateral academic exchange program between France and the United States is managed on behalf of both governments by the Franco-American Commission for Educational Exchange (FACEE). In addition to administering the competitive national selection process for Fulbright grants, the commission provides counseling on American educational opportunities to French students, whether or not they are scholarship recipients. The Commission also administers some private sector grants.
Exchange Programs
International Visitor Program
The International Visitor Program sends participants from France to the United States each year to meet and confer with their counterparts and to experience the United States firsthand. The visitors are current or potential leaders in government, politics, education, and other fields. More than 200 current and former Heads of State, 1,500 cabinet-level ministers, and many other distinguished world leaders in government and the private sector have participated in the International Visitor Program.
- In their Own Words – U.S. Department of State Exchange Visitors Speak Out
- A Guide for International Visitors
- International Visitor Program - U.S. Department of State
Voluntary Visitor Program
Through the Voluntary Visitor Program, the Cultural Affairs Office in Paris arranges special professional programs for high-level French individuals or groups who share a common bilateral interest with the United States. (who are paying their own way to the U.S.)
Alumni
Participants in U.S. Department of State exchange programs such as the IVLP, Fulbright, etc., are invited to join State Alumni, the global online community by and for alumni.
Launched in April 2001, the website is a way for alumni and the people who hosted them in the U.S. to network and stay in touch with each other.
Upon simply registering a user name and password with the site, you can access an alumni listserv, a calendar of events, grant opportunities, career development resources, and links to useful information. You can also search the database of State Alumni community members to find colleagues, friends, and alumni with similar interests or participate in monthly live Q&As featuring guest speakers.
This interactive site is geared towards its users and encourages you to participate in creating the content. Alumni can post their own news, events, resumes or links.
To register, please visit https://alumni.state.gov
Artistic Programs
The Cultural Affairs Office works with French art institutions and the French government to present American arts to French audiences and to bring together both countries’ artists to work on joint projects. The Office offers some limited facilitative support to American artists coming to France, as well as French artists with an American connection.
Art in Embassies
The Art in Embassies Program (AIEP) is a unique blend of art and diplomacy that curates exhibitions of more than 3,500 original works of art created by U.S. citizens and lent to AIEP. The work is displayed in the public rooms of some 170 U.S. embassy residences and diplomatic missions worldwide, providing an opportunity for thousands of guests each year to learn about the United States – its history, customs, values, and aspirations.
International Partnership Among Museums - IPAM
The goal of IPAM is to establish mutually beneficial sustainable linkages between the U.S. and non-U.S. museums with similar missions through the development and execution of a collaborative project. These projects may involve areas of museum operation such as administration, collections, stewardship, education, community outreach, cultural tourism, interpretation, research, marketing, or exhibit development and design.
The recipients of the 2003-2005 cycle of the International Partnerships Among Museums (IPAM) awards were announced in January. Twenty-one pairs of awardees will receive grant money to carry out collaborative projects. Funding is provided by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Florence Gould Foundation.
IPAM supports the exchange of mid-level museum staff for 31-day residencies to conduct joint or complementary projects. Past projects have included educational programming, exhibition development and design, community outreach, field research, collections stewardship, strategic planning and marketing, and cultural tourism.
For more information about the upcoming 2005-2007 cycle, contact: AAM International Programs, 202/289-9115; fax 202/289-6578; e-mail: ipam@aam-us.org.
France's recipient for the 2003-2005 cycle is the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon which has been selected for an exchange with the Cleveland (Ohio) Museum of Art.