Le Creux de l'enfer - Centre d'art contemporain d'intérêt national

Located in the emblematic site of the Valley of the Factories of Thiers, the contemporary art center of the Creux de l'enfer was created in 1988 in an exceptional industrial building rising above the tumultuous Durolle.

For more than 30 years, the art center has been honoring the best of contemporary national and international artistic creation and inviting artists to produce works in immersion, collaborating with local actors. Through an annual program of monographic or collective exhibitions, cycles of meetings and conferences closely linked to these exhibitions, but also mediation actions and exceptional public events, the art center also aims to create the most favorable conditions for the encounter between art and the public. Witness, for example, the Samedis d'enfer, programmed during each exhibition, which condense a multitude of artistic proposals, with workshops for children, guided tours of exhibitions and concerts, performances or other public events.

Nourished by multiple influences, between industry and nature, gesture and thought, the Creux de l'enfer defines a project that is as experimental as it is accessible, demanding as it is generous, sharp as it is friendly.

A contemporary art center housed in a former cutlery factory that closed for good in 1956, it originated in the policy of cultural decentralization undertaken at the instigation of Jack Lang in 1985. It opened in 1988, three years after the national symposium of monumental metal sculpture, organized by the municipality of Thiers, of which there remain several creations scattered in the city and its surroundings.
Le Creux de l'enfer is one of the fifty French contemporary art centers approved by the Ministry of Culture, whose operation is based on the German model of the "Kunsthallen", places in which artists are very involved: the Creux de l'enfer devotes all of its spaces to a program of temporary exhibitions (renewed every quarter) and events, developed in collaboration with the guest artists.

Since October 2019, it has been awarded the "contemporary art center of national interest" label, thus becoming the first labeled contemporary art center in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. At the controls of this "craft" on the Durolle: Sophie Auger-Grappin who, after more than 20 years in Ile de France, has chosen to leave Paris and an art center in the Yvelines, for Thiers, with projects of national scope for the other capital, that of cutlery.

In 2021, Le Creux de l'enfer is expanding and deploying its artistic and cultural project in a new building adjoining the current site. The provision of the Usine du May by the City of Thiers allows the art center to increase its exhibition space and to host new projects offering different experiences of artistic sharing in conjunction with local actors.

• Clientele: Reception of holiday camps, Reception of school groups, Reception of groups
• Environment: Motorway exit less than 5 km away, Shuttle stop less than 300 m away, In the mountains, In town, Public transport stop less than 500 m away, At the water's edge
• Adapted tourism: Accessible for autonomous wheelchairs

• Manual workshops
• Temporary exhibitions
• Animation
• Children's entertainment

• English
• Français

• Parking nearby
• Public toilets
• Show room
• Elevator
• Educational visits
• Coach access
• Motorhomes allowed
• Shop
• Drop off on site for groups
• Permanent animator
• Tourist Documentation
• Guided tours
• Recreation center

• Cheque
• Cash