La Charpente: a laboratory for radical hospitality

For six years, radical hospitality has shaped La Charpente des fauves. It influences how we open, inhabit and share the space with artists, audiences, partners and our team. Our 2026–2027 programme will build on this approach, turning La Charpente into a laboratory dedicated to accessibility and inclusion. Each week of our season—approximately 44 weeks—we will try a new initiative designed to bring tangible change to the space. La Charpente will become our observation site, testing ground and main subject of research. Every intervention will begin with a simple question: how can this place better meet the needs of the people who use it? Experiments may change the physical layout, circulation, signage, lighting, rest areas or the ways different rooms are used. They may also transform less visible aspects of the space: communications, opening hours, welcoming practices, ticketing, how activities unfold, and the support offered to artists and audiences. Some interventions will be temporary and relatively easy to put in place. Others will require several trials, adjustments or more lasting changes to how we work. The space will evolve gradually through observations, consultations and feedback. Rather than applying a single solution, we will explore flexible approaches and assess their effects on people’s experiences at La Charpente, responding to a diversity of needs. This work will take shape through a team residency in collaboration with Noémie Lavertu*. This research period will allow us to examine our habits, identify barriers in the space and test new ways of welcoming people. Every experiment will be documented so we can understand what it makes possible, whose needs it addresses and what limitations it reveals. Our goal is to make La Charpente more accessible and, above all, more inclusive. An accessible space allows people to enter, move around and participate. An inclusive space also allows them to feel expected, heard and entitled to take their place. This distinction will guide the entire project. At the end of the season, we will critically assess the changes made. Some measures will become a lasting part of the space; others will be adapted, replaced or abandoned. What we learn will form a record of La Charpente’s evolution and guide the next stages of its development. The laboratory for radical hospitality will therefore do more than add to the programme: it will gradually change how La Charpente is arranged, perceived and experienced. It will help us preserve the spontaneity and experimental spirit of our beginnings while grounding them in the stronger foundations of an organization that is steadily taking root. La Charpente will remain a living, evolving structure, capable of changing through contact with the people who inhabit it. One question will accompany every initiative: What do you need to feel even more welcome here?