NEW YORK.-The Cultural Services of the French Embassy have revamped and relaunched their website, Frenchculture.org, to increase awareness about French culture in the United States and improve user-friendliness. The site, which is in English, is aimed at Americans and receives over 80,000 hits a month. It provides up-to-date information on the cultural and educational projects supported by the Embassy throughout the United States as well as on the Embassy’s many programs and grants. The fresh and improved website has a new look, inspired by the theatrical light bulbs of Parisian cabarets while the fluorescent colors come from Broadway’s music-hall billboards.

New functions and sections, developed by Gaya, a Paris-based web design company, are available, making the site an ever more powerful tool. Perhaps the main new feature is an easy-to-read calendar, providing a day-to-day listing of the events supported by the French Embassy in a specific consular region. RSS feeds have also been included, so that visitors can automatically receive updates as soon as new articles are posted online. An editorial by the Cultural Attaché highlights the month’s main events, giving readers a convenient overview of what’s happening in a consular region. Last but not least, a new press section gives journalists a great way to obtain press releases of current, upcoming and archived events, as well as high-resolution photos.

The new design streamlines the number of sections, providing quick links to key topics, namely Culture, Education, Non-Governmental Cooperation, and Special Events. The Culture tab reveals a pop-up menu with links to specific disciplines (visual arts, film, literature, multimedia, music and the performing arts). The Education tab is divided into three subsections: Primary and Secondary Education, Higher Education and French Language. Finally, the site's structure now mirrors the geographical division of the Cultural Services, with an interactive map providing access to its offices throughout the United States, giving visitors a quick way to find local listings that are more detailed than ever before.

The new home page particularly highlights our grants and programs and gives visitors the opportunity to apply to them online. These pages give a detailed presentation of the action of the Cultural Services, which offer more than 20 programs directly or in conjunction with our non-profit partner, FACE (the French American Cultural Exchange). Visitors can now make tax-deductible donations to FACE directly through our website, to help support the promotion of French Culture in the United States.