American Center For Students And Artists

Also named Centre culturel américain de Paris or American Center (1931-1996). The American Center For Students And Artists of Paris opened in 1931, in a neoclassical building designed by Welles Bosworth. The Center was a frequent meeting place for Americans and French alike, hosting popular language, music, and theater courses. In the 1960s and 1970s, the American Center evolved into an incubator for avant-garde expression, hosting contemporary dance, music and visual arts, along with the European premieres of works by such artists as Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, Robert Lowell, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham. The Center embarked upon an ambitious rebirth in the Bercy neighborhood of Eastern Paris. In 1989, Frank Gehry was commissioned to design a new building for the Center, which opened in 1994. Ultimately, however, the Center decided to carry out its activities in the form of a “foundation without walls,” as it were, in order to continue its longtime commitment to supporting avant-garde and experimental expression. The Gehry building became the home of the Cinémathèque française and the proceeds from the sale of the Center’s property were used to fund the grant-making programs of the American Center Foundation.