Rima Abdul Malak

Rima Abdul Malak

Minister of Culture

On May 20, 2022, she was appointed Minister of Culture. Born in 1979, Rima Abdul Malak spent the first ten years of her life in Beirut, before her family, fleeing the civil war, decided to settle in France, in Lyon.  A graduate of the Institute of Political Studies in Lyon and then of the Sorbonne in international cooperation, she began by working for the Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development.

• In 2001, she became program director of Clowns sans frontières, an NGO that brings together more than 400 artists from all walks of life. It organizes shows and training in refugee camps, slums, hospitals, orphanages or social centers, from Sudan to Bangladesh, Moldova, Afghanistan and the Philippines.
• She then became responsible for the current music division at Culturesfrance (now the Institut Français)
• In 2008, she joined the Office of the Deputy Minister of Culture at the Mayor of Paris, as an advisor for live entertainment and then as a Director of Cabinet.
• In 2012, she became the culture advisor of the Mayor of Paris.
• She then went to the United States as a cultural attaché at the French Embassy in New York. She developed tours, residencies and exhibitions of French artists, created a festival dedicated to children, as well as a new program for the promotion of French design.
• In 2019, she was appointed Culture Advisor to the President of the Republic. For two and a half years, she works daily, in permanent contact with Matignon and the Ministry of Culture, to deploy measures to help the sector in the face of the pandemic, and to facilitate the implementation of the cultural policy initiated by the President of the Republic: pass culture, safeguarding of heritage, plan 100% arts education, reading great national cause, support for creation, development of cultural industries, audiovisual reform, platform regulation, media plan, restitution policy, etc.

Ministry of Culture