is an ambitious site for innovative cultural leadership. It looks to combine a state-of-the-art show place for the creative and performing arts with the research facilities and dynamic curricular activity of a world university center.

The Arts Arena's component parts all serve the general French and international communities through open public events and the local university community through curricular links, teaching, and research. A yearly festival – Around the Arena – brings together all of the Arts Arena's component parts around the same theme.