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| Fondation Hergé | |
|---|---|
| Name | Fondation Hergé |
| Established | 1987 |
| Type | Cultural foundation |
| Founder | Fanny Rodwell |
Fondation Hergé is a Belgian private foundation created to preserve, promote, and manage the artistic and literary heritage of Georges Remi, known by the pen name Hergé. The foundation oversees intellectual property, curates archival holdings, coordinates exhibitions, and supports scholarship related to Hergé's life and works, interacting with institutions across Europe and North America.
The foundation was established in the late 20th century by Fanny Rodwell following Hergé's death in 1983, situating itself amid cultural institutions such as the Royal Library of Belgium, Musée Hergé initiatives, and collaborations with the Centre Georges Pompidou, Bibliothèque nationale de France, British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Louvre, Rijksmuseum, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Early activities connected the foundation to legal and literary networks including the Belgian Court of Cassation, European Court of Human Rights, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, and the Association of European Coordination of Copyright Collections. The foundation's institutional relationships extended to the University of Liège, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Université libre de Bruxelles, Sorbonne University, Columbia University, Yale University, and the University of Cambridge for research collaborations and exhibitions. Over time it engaged with media partners such as RTBF, BBC, France Télévisions, TF1, Le Soir, Le Monde, The New York Times, and The Guardian in promoting Hergé's corpus.
The foundation's stated aims include protection of Hergé's copyright and moral rights, promotion of the graphic novel as an art form, and facilitation of scholarly study by connecting with entities like the World Intellectual Property Organization, European Union Intellectual Property Office, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, UNESCO, Council of Europe, and national cultural agencies including Flanders Heritage Agency, French Ministry of Culture, and Belgian Federal Public Service counterparts. Activities include licensing with publishers such as Casterman, Methuen Publishing, Little, Brown and Company, Random House, Penguin Books, Hachette, and collaborations with galleries like Galerie Daniel Maghen, Gagosian Gallery, and auction houses Sotheby's, Christie's, and Bonhams. Educational outreach has linked the foundation to museums and festivals including Angoulême International Comics Festival, Lucca Comics & Games, Comic-Con International, Festival d'Angoulême, and institutions such as Smithsonian Institution, Canadian Museum of History, Austrian Cultural Forum, Goethe-Institut, and Instituto Cervantes for programming.
The foundation curates manuscripts, sketches, correspondence, and production materials associated with Hergé, housing items comparable in significance to holdings at the Houghton Library, Harry Ransom Center, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, and the archives of creators such as Walt Disney, Charles Schulz, Will Eisner, Moebius, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Osamu Tezuka, Hanna-Barbera, Pierre Culliford, and Edgar P. Jacobs. The archives support exhibitions and loans to institutions including the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art, European Comic Art Museum, International Museum of Cartoon Art, Centre National du Comic, and university special collections at Princeton University, University of Oxford, University of Toronto, Utrecht University, and Leiden University. Cataloguing projects have referenced standards used by the International Council on Archives, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Library of Congress provenance practices, enabling research into Hergé's collaborations with contemporaries like Paul Cuvelier, Jacques Martin, C. S. Lewis, and A. A. Milne.
The foundation played a central role in establishing the Hergé Museum near Liège and Brussels, intended as a permanent venue for exhibitions, educational programs, and conservation, alongside partnerships with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, European Parliament, City of Louvain-la-Neuve, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Maison des Auteurs, and regional cultural agencies. The museum's programming has featured retrospectives and loans linking exhibitions to creators and works such as Tintin in Tibet, The Secret of the Unicorn, Explorers on the Moon, The Adventures of Tintin, Hergé's Jo, Zette and Jocko, and comparative shows referencing Tintin et Milou influences alongside displays about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Jules Verne, Hergé's contemporaries, and international comics traditions from Belgian comics, Franco-Belgian comics, American comic books, and Manga.
Governance structures include a board of trustees and advisory committees composed of family representatives, legal advisors, curators, and scholars affiliated with institutions such as Université catholique de Louvain, Royal Academy of Belgium, Institut national d'histoire de l'art, College of Europe, and NGOs like Europa Nostra. Funding sources comprise licensing revenues, museum admissions, philanthropic support from foundations comparable to the Guggenheim Foundation, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, corporate sponsorships from cultural partners like BNP Paribas, ING Group, AXA, KBC Group, and grants awarded by bodies such as the European Cultural Foundation and national arts councils including Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique and Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique.
The foundation's stewardship has shaped scholarship, exhibitions, and adaptations of Hergé's work across print, audiovisual, and digital media, influencing filmmakers and producers associated with Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, WingNut Films, Paramount Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and animation studios like Pixar, Studio Ghibli, Blue Sky Studios, and DreamWorks Animation. Its licensing and curatorial activity affected translations and editions produced by houses such as Casterman, Methuen, Scholastic Corporation, Random House, and Egmont, and informed critical studies by scholars connected to University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Harvard University, University College London, Leipzig University, and Boston University. The foundation's work interacts with debates involving creators and institutions like H.P. Lovecraft, Joseph Conrad, Rene Magritte, Pablo Picasso, André Franquin, Hugo Pratt, and Roger Leloup, contributing to Hergé's placement within 20th-century visual culture, museum practice, and the international history of comics.
Category:Foundations in Belgium