Jean Vilar and the 'Avignon encounters' : the birth of cultural policies 1964-1970

During the Avignon encounters administrators, specialists and scholars interested in cultural policy were discussing questions as the purposes of a coherent cultural policy, artistic creation and cultural democratisation, the freedom of artists, the role of the governement and local authorities, the place of cultural education and the financing of art. Many years later, they appear to have had a big influence on the development of ideas about cultural policy.