Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-04-08
Source: The Conversation – France (in French)– By Hélène Gorge, Lecturer, LUMEN (ULR 4999), University of Lille, University of Lille
The recent municipal elections showed how cultural investments could be instrumentalized in a political debate; as in Lens, in Pas-de-Calais. The local Louvre was accused of not benefiting the town’s residents enough. This raises the question of the usefulness of cultural facilities. Should it be measured according to economic, social, or cultural considerations?
In a context of tense municipal elections, particularly in the city of Lens (Pas-de-Calais), the cultural offer proposed in this city has been the subject of questions. Onearticle fromTéléramaparticularly questions the success of the cultural revitalization announced with the establishment of the Louvre-Lens museum.
As this article shows, the opposition on the municipal council does not hesitate to point out mixed results for the Louvre-Lens, especially when looking at the museum’s attendance figures and the share of international visitors, which is lower than announced.
However, it is difficult – even dangerous – to quantify the results of a cultural offering, such as a museum, in a location where the population, mainly from working-class backgrounds, is little or not at all familiar with museum institutions. This phenomenon of quantification directly threatens a cultural field already under strain and subject to numerous budget cuts in recent years. This could encourage ahierarchization of cultural actors and a potential instrumentalization of culture.
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Two speeches of legitimation
Our work on the process of legitimizing the Louvre-Lens in the city of Lens and the mining basin region,published in 2024, precisely shows the economic and cultural dynamics of the museum’s establishment. Since 2004, the start of the media coverage of the project to establish this museum, the local context has had a strong influence on the two types of legitimization of Louvre-Lens, developed in parallel by media, political, socio-economic, and cultural actors: economic legitimization and cultural legitimization.
The strategy of economic legitimation is often at the heart of speeches, particularly from political actors, to defend – or criticize – a cultural offering project. Presented as a lever for economic revitalization for the mining basin and its inhabitants, the museum was to ensure “economic survival” of the region at the beginning of the 2000s (La Voix du Nord, July 21, 2004). This strategy and its reception are then strongly influenced by the local context. The socio-economic difficulties of the inhabitants increase the expectations around the Louvre-Lens but also the tensions, with the fear of an investment that is too heavy for a region already experiencing difficulties.
Insufficient economic benefits?
A few years after the opening of the museum, starting from the mid-2010s, the economic outcome did not live up to all its promises, which triggered criticism in the media sphere pointing to “a limited impact on the local economy” (Le Monde, August 21, 2016) and the perceived gap between the promises of public actors and actual economic development.
To better understand the importance of the economic argument in discussions about the Louvre-Lens, the contributions of cultural marketing can prove useful. In the 1990s-2000s, studies on the concept of“creative city”or on the theory of“creative class”emerging. This work assumes that the development of creative and cultural activities in a city generates economic development, promotes social inclusion, and improves the living conditions of its inhabitants.
If these concepts have appealed to policy makers, many scientific studies have criticized them, particularly for the relative vagueness of their concrete application. Furthermore, a large majority of [works] supporting the economic argument always relies on the same example of cultural revitalization, that of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, widely publicized and cited in political speeches as a model to follow.
The weight of context
But this model does not export easily, as the specificities unique to each territory—their historical, political, social, economic, spatial, or even cultural contexts—are crucial for better understanding the development of a local cultural offer.
In parallel with this process of economic legitimization particularly mobilized by political, economic, and media actors, cultural legitimization is rather framed within an objective of cultural democratization, in order to encourage the appropriation of the Louvre-Lens by the inhabitants. From the beginning of the museum development project, the Louvre-Lens is presented as compensation for a city and a region often neglected by public authorities since deindustrialization. Thus, Guy Delcourt, socialist mayor of the city and vice-president of the general council of Pas-de-Calais, considered that the choice of the government announced on November 29 by the Prime Minister during a visit to the city is only justice for a department that has“always been forgotten on the roadside, including by our friends from the North”.
Material traces of the preserved past
The symbolic dimension of this establishment, linked to the mining past of the territory, is reinforced by its spatial dimension. Whether it is its location (an old pithead) or the preserved and enhanced material traces (signage of the old mine shaft, conservation of the traces of the old rails used for transporting coal).
The spatial dimension of a museum significantly influences its representations and attendance. In this context, research incultural marketingand inurban planningoften describe a museum architecture that would be designed and conceived by public actors and architects for tourism development purposes without real consideration or involvement of the inhabitants, thus hindering their attendance and efforts for cultural democratization. However, in the case of the Louvre-Lens, its spatial dimension helped to embed the museum in a common history and identity, that of the mining basin.
Following the museum’s opening, its cultural legitimacy has been strengthened thanks to various initiatives developed by the Louvre-Lens, such as exhibitions on RC Lens, the local football club, on Poland reflecting the significant Polish community in the area, and also through the implementation of exhibit labels designed with more than 200 residents to encourage a collaborative approach.
Local associations mobilized
These actions promote collaboration between residents and local associations, meeting the objective of territorial embedding of the Louvre-Lens. This cultural legitimacy is ultimately rarely questioned in media discourse and by residents, who are increasingly numerous in visiting the Louvre-Lens each year. In 2024, according to the Louvre-Lens activity report, 74% of visitors come from Hauts-de-France and 30% live near the museum, a proportion that has increased in recent years (28% in 2023 and 25% in 2022). For comparison, according to the Mucem activity report in 2024, 39% of their visitors come from the Sud region, and 28% live in Marseille.
In the process of legitimizing Louvre-Lens, if cultural legitimacy tends to be relegated to the background by certain actors: media, political in particular, it actually proves to be at the heart of the museum’s current success with the local population, and therefore of the development of the territory.
Indeed, theanalysis of media discoursearound the Louvre-Lens shows that its economic legitimacy was more strongly debated at the beginning of the project in the 2000s, then at the inauguration of the museum in 2012. It was then increasingly less questioned over the years, giving way to discourse portraying the Louvre-Lens as a cultural success, accepted and legitimate. However, the economic argument regularly reappears at times of major political stakes, as recently witnessed in the current context of the municipal elections.
Clarify the outcomes
Media and political discourses contribute to fueling tensions by omitting essential elements for a full understanding of economic benefits, making the economic argument unclear. The Louvre-Lens celebrated its 13th anniversary at the end of 2025; while this represents a relatively short period in the scale of a museum, this is not the case for the residents. The timing of economic benefits must be taken into account and communicated to the local population to avoid any ambiguity about the time required for economic development.
The revitalization of territories must be approached in a nuanced manner, as economic and social issues do not affect all stakeholders in the same way. Private actors and real estate investors are the first to benefit from the economic spillovers, then, to a lesser extent, the residents. It is therefore essential to clarify how all stakeholders benefit from the economic development of the territory, whether it be the local population, the associative network, or private companies.
The same approach applies to geographic areas. For example, infrastructures developed around the Louvre-Lens, such as the museum park, the Louvre-Lens Valley, or the renovation of road access, have a much more direct impact on the neighborhoods surrounding the museum than on more distant neighborhoods, which can create tensions within the population or a form of misunderstanding toward this type of investment.
Melvin Grefils’ thesis was co-funded by the University of Lille (50%) and the Hauts-de-France Regional Council (50%). This work also benefited from a collaboration agreement with the Louvre-Lens Museum.
Hélène Gorge and Nil Özçaglar-Toulouse do not work for, advise, own shares in, or receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and have declared no other affiliation than their academic positions.
–ref. The difficulties of economic legitimation of a cultural offer, the case of Louvre-Lens –https://theconversation.com/the-difficulties-of-economic-legitimation-of-a-cultural-offer-the-case-of-the-louvre-lens-279148