ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how two outreach projects negotiate the politics of French universalism and cultural diversity in southeastern France. These projects publicize their work as promoting widely embraced policy goals such as access to the arts, community building, and artistic education. However, these projects’ directors see their value as far broader in scope. They valorize specific immigrant experiences and communities, draw attention to homelessness and gentrification, and critique the patronizing top-down nature of policies. They thus negotiate national, regional, and local politics, in addition to local communities and individual artists to create projects that they believe are of value to the people with whom they work. These projects show how a few professionals implement policy priorities—and juggle the political anxieties behind the elected officials who make them—in their own ways. They are sensitive to the needs of communities, the politicians, and project participants as they seek to build something that has artistic and cultural value.
