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1. New technologies in support of creativity and innovation

2. Facilitating access to culture through new technologies

New technologies in support of creativity and innovation

Public and private actors working for the cultural benefit of young people now place the use of digital tools at the centre of cultural access, mediation and creation. Rather than treating new technologies as an optional add-on, current public policy frames them as part of a broader effort to develop digitally competent citizens, to strengthen educational innovation and to support hybrid cultural practices.

Ministry of Culture

One of the most important permanent programmes is Micro-Folie. Launched in 2017, it is an innovative local cultural policy instrument led by the Ministry of Culture and coordinated by the Public Establishment for the Parc de la Villette and the Grande Halle de la Villette (EPPGHV / La Villette). 

The current 2026 call for projects states that the programme aims to reach 700 structures open by the end of 2026, and that more than 560 Micro-Folies are currently active. The Ministry also continues to invite local authorities to apply through regional calls for projects.

Micro-Folies remain a good example of a hybrid cultural venue: they combine digital access to collections, educational mediation and spaces for creative practice. The Ministry describes them as a proximity-based cultural device designed to reach diverse audiences, strengthen local cultural life and adapt to territorial needs. 

For more information on Micro-Folie see 8.5 Developing cultural and creative competences.

Ministry of Education

Since the 1990s, the Ministry of Education has been developing programmes on information and communication technology (ICT) in education for teachers and students alike. The latter take media and information lessons in this respect (see 6.8 Media literacy and online safety through formal education). Furthmore, digital skill acquisition schemes have also been set up:

Pix is a French online platform used to assess and improve digital skills. It allows users to practice their digital abilities and obtain an official certification of their level. The platform is intended for middle school students, high school students, university students, and trainees in public education and professional training programs.

Pix evaluates whether users have mastered the skills defined by the French Digital Competence Framework (Cadre de référence des compétences numériques - CRCN). It assesses 16 digital competencies across five main areas:

• Information and data
• Communication and collaboration
• Content creation
• Protection and security
• Digital environment skills

A more recent and important development is Pix AI. Since the 2025–2026 school year, pupils in middle school and high school have been progressively required to follow dedicated learning pathways on artificial intelligence, with full mandatory rollout from the 2026 school year. These pathways are designed to build a critical and responsible digital culture by helping pupils understand how AI works, its uses, limits, biases and environmental impacts.

There is also now a parallel development for teachers: the Ministry’s digital strategy indicates that a first Pix+ Édu learning pathway dedicated to AI will be deployed in spring 2026, alongside a renewed certification format. This is an important addition because it shows that the digital-innovation policy now covers not only pupils, but also teachers’ professional development.

Community and associative initiatives.

At local level, the current system is still built on partnerships. The Ministry of Education’s digital policy explicitly works with local authorities, associations, EdTech actors and other educational partners, while Micro-Folie itself is implemented through calls for projects directed at local authorities. This means that community-based digital creativity projects remain important, but they now fit into a much more structured national framework than before.

Facilitating access to culture through new technologies

The use of technologies, particularly IT, as cultural participation tools, is promoted by the Ministry of Culture, which has put together a cultural mediation offering making use of new communication technologies:

• Histoire par l’image portal: presents more than 3,100 works, 1,700 studies and 190 animations;
• Histoire des arts portal: brings together around 5,000 selected resources and thematic dossiers;
• Joconde: collective catalogue of the collections of French museums (collections are now accessible on POP with more than 1 million records and nearly 790,000 illustrated entries in 2026);
• The Culture Pass (Pass culture)

For teaching purposes, the current official digital offer is framed around Lumni Enseignement, the Ministry’s free documentary resource platform for teachers and pupils. Eduscol also continues to provide updated art-history resources, including the current 2025–2026 and 2026 programme materials for history of the arts.

The Ministry also maintains dedicated online mediation tools such as the catalogue of virtual museum visits, which allows users to discover museum collections and exhibitions through free 3D visits on a computer, tablet or smartphone, as well as virtual archaeological visits for heritage sites. Official guidance for cultural institutions also recommends using social media as a channel for mediation and dissemination.