French Audit Court Criticizes ARTCENA's Unclear Missions

France's Cour des comptes has released a report criticizing ARTCENA, the national resource center for theater, circus, and street arts, for its lack of coherent mission and overlapping activities. ARTCENA was created in 2016 from the merger of the Centre national du théâtre and HorsLesMurs, and expanded in 2024 to include the Centre de ressources international de la scène (CRIS). The audit highlights a 'proliferation of actions' and siloed operations across theater, circus, and street arts. The national aid for dramatic text creation, funded at 715,000 euros annually, remains heavily theater-focused, while circus and street arts receive limited resources. The court also notes redundancies with other bodies, such as the Centre national des arts du cirque (CNAC) in documentary resources and the Association nationale de recherche et d'action théâtrale (ANRAT) in arts education. It recommends studying a potential merger of ARTCENA, the Office national de diffusion artistique (ONDA), and ANRAT on a single site by 2027 to share functions. Management issues include weak own resources, insufficiently formalized public procurement procedures, unclear governance, and weak oversight of aid surplus reuse. The court also calls for redefining ARTCENA's socio-economic observation mission and better structuring its international strategy. A revision of ARTCENA's statutes is expected by the end of 2026. The report was published on September 3, 2026, and covered by Le Journal des Arts.