Culture, Sports and leisure
Cultural Venues
- The Astrolabe: A multifunctional neighbourhood cultural venue, situated in the heart of Mireuil, aims to bring people together socially through art and culture. The place has a rich and varied output including a street performance program.
- National Choreographic Centre of La Rochelle: Directed by Régine Chopinot since 1986, the centre is one of the French cultural institutions created at the beginning of the 1980's at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture and the minister at the time, Jack Lang. Régine Chopinot's departure in 2008 will not affect the place's mission, which will remain a National Choreographic Centre.
- National College of Music and Dance: This conservatoire heads a network of schools in the greater La Rochelle. It has over 1,000 pupils. A team of artiste/teachers give quality tuition culminating in end-of-year concerts, learning trips or master classes.
- Contemporary Art Space, created in 1999 by the Town of La Rochelle, is a place for creativity, exhibitions, research and experimentation in contemporary art situated in a 250m² space with unusual architecture, an 18th century former bishop's palace. Today this place offers 5 to 6 one-person or collective exhibitions every year and a programme of linked promotional activities.
- La Coursive: La Rochelle's national stage is supported by the town halls of greater La Rochelle. It has three auditoriums (The Grand Theâtre, the Blue Room and the Theâtre Verdière). It is a multi-discipline space which puts on theatrical, choreographical, musical and contemporary circus presentations. The building is also an art and experimental cinema. Several festivals are put on there: Francofolies, the La Rochelle International Film Festival and the TV Fiction Festival. Its mission is to put on live shows and cinema, and support artistic creation by participating in the production of work.
http://www.la-coursive.com
- Le Carré Amelot: A cultural space belonging to the Town of La Rochelle mainly devoted to the visual arts and the arts of sound. Its project centres on a threefold choice intended to complement the towns other cultural venues:
- Very selective and specialised artistic programming in the fields of photography, audiovisual and multimedia, electroacoustic art and puppet theatre and objects.
- A complete program of workshops for amateur arts and professional training.
- A set of original ideas build around a stock of over 2,500 games and toys.
http://www.carre-amelot.net
- The Michel Crépeau media library: This establishment acts as a bridgehead for the libraries and media libraries of greater La Rochelle. Opened in 1998, it offers the public free access to consult. Its collections are wide and varied (encyclopaedic tools, general and specialised works, comic books, novels, records, videos, art database...). What is more, the media library has the task of conserving and making available the back collection and the local collection, whether they belong to the State, or to the town of La Rochelle or private collections.
