All for one to support megalithic sites

IFACCA/Artshub, 11 July 2005,France

The French Minister for Culture and Communication, M. Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, has signed an official agreement for a constitutive convention for the Pooling of Public Cultural Interest, entitled Memory of Stones: Megaliths in Morbihan. The agreement will authorise a new partnership between the Ministry for Culture and Communication, the Centre of National Monuments, and the managers of the megalithic sites at Carnac, Locmariaquer and of Barnenez. The agreement requires the five partners to consolidate action into one common strategy for the benefit of all. The Pooling of Public Cultural Interests (PPCI) will invest in research in order to define a project enhancing the sites, which would be both ambitious and sensible. The research will be carried out under the conditions of public approval, on the cultural and scientific returns and on the necessary landscaping. It will form the foundation of a managerial project for all territories involved. The fruit of this research, which is to be strictly and constantly monitored by local associations, will lead to the implementation of a project adapted for a site that has three deeply important dimensions: namely its cultural, scientific and ecological heritage. The PPCI was conceived to structure the project and its life-span is limited to two years. A board of directors consisting of ten members distributes the power equally among partners: two of them come from the government, two from the centre of national monuments, two from the regional council, two from the general council, and two from the community of Carnac. The total budget set aside for the operational research is €200,000 and is to be allotted as follows: