Earl R. Merrill: This Woman Is Trying To Make Arles The Cultural Capital Of The South Of France

Friday, October 5, 2018

This Woman Is Trying To Make Arles The Cultural Capital Of The South Of France

With a $175 million arts complex called Luma Arles, Maja Hoffmann (an heir to the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceuticals fortune) “is trying to transform [the city of 35,000] through art, much in the same way that the artist Donald Judd reimagined a town called Marfa in Texas, or the Dia Art Foundation rebuilt the upstate New York town of Beacon, using art as a draw and an economic engine.” (Not to mention, of course, Bilbao — and, of course, the architect of Luma Arles is Frank Gehry.) “In doing so, Ms. Hoffmann has taken on a role that was once reserved for public officials and city planners: imagining the future and then building it.”