Since it was founded in 1974, Angoulême’s International Comic Strip Festival (FIBD) has given rise to a whole new ecosystem in the conurbation, which is now a fully-fledged driver for socioeconomic and urban development. The city has transformed its sometimes struggling industrial economy into a predominantly tertiary activity grounded in visual arts-focused cultural industries.

The Visual Arts Campus has taken shape with 12 specialist graduate schools. An economic development centre, Magelis, has been set up to support and strengthen the growth of this industry. Specialist cultural facilities (such as the International Centre for Comic Strips and the Visual Arts, Musée de France accredited Comic Strip Museum or L’Alpha media library) have sprung up, and support schemes (including design grants, Centre for Writers, aid for corporate real estate, business incubators and more) now foster creativity and the creation of cultural businesses.

Urban planning projects take this new dimension into account (redevelopment of brownfield sites, repurposing the Saint-Cybard neighbourhood and Charente riverbanks for the visual arts, integration in the “Action Coeur de ville” national scheme for revitalising mid-sized city centres, street furniture, street signs, etc.).