Night of Ideas

Partners

Presented by

Villa Albertine is an institution of the French Embassy in the United States, supported by the French government and Albertine Foundation. Villa Albertine’s mission is to strengthen ties between the United States, France and the French- speaking world through culture and education. In the arts and culture sphere, we encourage collaboration among French and US-based organizations and provide creators, thought leaders, and professionals with customized residencies, immersive networking experiences, grants, and connections to audiences so they can explore and share new insights into society’s pressing issues.

In the field of education, we craft projects and programs aimed at making French language and culture accessible to young US-based audiences, expand opportunities for students to study and complete internships in France, and support partnerships between French and American higher education and research institutions. Villa Albertine is present in 10 major US cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. It is headquartered in New York’s historic Payne Whitney mansion, home to Albertine, our bookshop and nexus for French- American intellectual exchange. Follow Villa Albertine on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. villa-albertine.org

Follow Villa Albertine on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.    

 

The Rothko Chapel is a spiritual space, a forum for world leaders, a place for solitude and gathering. It’s an epicenter for civil rights activists, a quiet disruption, a stillness that moves. It’s a destination for the 100,000 people of all faiths who visit each year from all parts of the world.

Basket Books & Art is an art space and independent bookstore devoted to art, literature, poetry, thought, named after Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas’s beloved poodle Basket. Founded by writer Laura Hughes and artist Edwin Smalling in 2022, Basket serves as a gathering place for Houston’s many arts communities and a portal to worlds beyond.

Albertine Foundation (formerly known as FACE Foundation) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and under Villa Albertine, Albertine Foundation promotes artistic, literary and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries.

 

The Institut français is responsible for France’s international cultural program. Supervised by both the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and by the Ministry of Culture, it promotes French culture abroad through cultural exchange initiatives. Operating in a space where the arts, intellectual exchange, cultural and social innovation, and linguistic partnerships interact and intersect, it is also responsible for promoting the French language and the sharing of works, artists, and ideas all over the world. The Institut français is one of Villa Albertine’s main French partners.

National Support

The Foundation’s work has included the underwriting of public spaces. This includes being the largest supporter of Washington’s Franklin  Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the principal donor for the Emmett Till Exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a major donor to New York’s Statue of Liberty Museum and to Washington’s  United States Holocaust Memorial  Museum and an early donor to Chicago’s Obama Presidential Center, its latest effort after decades of assistance on Chicago’s south side. 

In connection to French culture and history, it has long been helping Notre Dame restoration and has only accelerated this work since  the 2019 fire; the Louvre Endowment; and to education on Holocaust and Deportation scholarship including the 1988 Academy Award winning documentary., Hotel Terminus, the Life and Times of Klaus Barbie. 

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org. 

Local Support

Texan-French Alliance for the Arts

The Texan-French Alliance for the Arts (TFAA) is a 501c(3) non-profit organization devoted to bridging cultures, communities, and art. It was founded in 2005 by former Consul General of France and a group of enthusiastic Francophile foundations, corporations, individuals. It is supported by French and American corporations, foundations, private donors, as well as the Consulate of France in Houston.

ENGIE

ENGIE is an energy company that focuses on long-term, efficient, carbon-reducing solutions. ENGIE meets customers’ needs through with renewable and low-carbon energy solutions, while creating jobs, economic opportunities, and trusted customer and community partnerships along the way.

Québec Government Office in Houston

The Québec Government Office in Houston promotes Québec’s interests in the areas of business, investment, government institutions, education, culture, the advancement of the French language and the Francophonie.  The Office carries out its mandate in the South Central United States, which includes four states: Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

In-Kind Support

Alliance Française de Houston

The Alliance Française de Houston, established for over 100 years in Montrose, is part of a global network of over 850 Alliances worldwide. It is among the most active in the United States. Its primary mission is to promote the French language, as well as to enhance French and Francophone culture. This includes organizing exhibitions, lectures with artists and writers, concerts, and numerous other cultural events.
The Alliance Française de Houston is also a recognized venue for official exams such as the DELF and TCF.
Over the past two years, the Alliance Française has experienced remarkable growth and is actively working on expansion plans in Houston.

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