Renewal of the Board of Directors of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici

On the proposal of the Minister of Culture, the President of the Republic has appointed Marie-Cécile Zinsou as President of the Board of Directors of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici for a three-year term.

Born in 1982, of French and Beninese nationality, Marie-Cécile Zinsou, after studies in France and England, began teaching art history in Benin, at the Ecole secondaire des métiers d’art Sos Hermann Gmeiner, in Abomey Calavi, in 2003.

In 2005, she created, in Cotonou, the Fondation Zinsou, dedicated to contemporary art and its influence – a foundation she presides over and for which she is artistic director. In 2013, she opened the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ouidah and joined the Global Museum Leader Colloquium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Since 2015, Marie-Cécile Zinsou has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Etablissement public du Château, du Musée et du Domaine national de Versailles and, since 2019, of the Board of Directors of the Institut des Cultures d’Islam. She chairs the board of directors of La Maison Maria Casarès, a cultural center dedicated to theater, located in Charente.

Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, she received under the action of the Zinsou Foundation, the Praemium Imperiale – Grant for young artist- in 2014 in Japan.

Five personalities have also been appointed members of the Board of Directors of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici by the Minister of Culture for a three-year term: Sylvain Bellenger, director of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples, Cathy Bouvard, director of the Ateliers Médicis in Clichy- Montfermeil, Grégoire Chertok, managing partner of a financial institution, Emmanuel Tibloux, director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, and Monique Veaute, director of the Festival des Deux Mondes in Spoleto (renewing her mandate).

Marie-Cécile Zinsou and all the members of the Board of Directors will be responsible for supporting the work of Sam Stourdzé, Director of the Villa since 1 September 2020.

Marie-Cécile Zinsou succeeds Thierry Tuot, who chaired the Board of Directors for nine years, from 2011 to 2020. The Minister of Culture wishes to salute the action and commitment of Thierry Tuot at the head of the Board of Directors of the Academy of France in Rome – Villa Medici, during his three successive mandates.