Lucienne Peiry

During the ten years prior to her 2012 appointment, Lucienne Peiry (Lausanne, 1961) directed the  Collection de l’Art Brut (2001 thru 2011), during which time she organized over thirty temporary exhibitions shown at the museum in Lausanne, as well as in various countries of Europe and in Japan Her research projects in, notably, Asia (China, Japan, India) and Africa (Ivory Coast, Ghana), led her to discover numerous creators whose works have greatly enriched the Collection in Lausanne. She also saw to it that numerous exhibition catalogues were drawn up, together with various publications on Art Brut. Her writings include a volume on Nannetti (with P.N. Manoni, 2011), the Kingdom of Nek Chand (with P. Lespinasse, 2005) and Giovanni Battista Podestà (1987).

She devoted her doctoral thesis at the University of Lausanne (1996) to the history of Art Brut and of the Collection assembled by Jean Dubuffet. Flammarion published her thesis in French as L'Art Brut (1997, 4 reprints); English and German versions followed.

Lucienne Peiry saw to the production and presentation of documentary films—often together with Philippe Lespinasse—featuring several of the Art Brut creators present in the museum's Collection. She also set up a great number of theatrical, musical and dance events at the Collection de l'Art Brut, thus encouraging joint projects with various artistic institutions. Still another of her initiatives was to inaugurate an educational program in 2001, in order to attract a young public. Last but not least, she founded the friends of the museum association "Parti de l'Art Brut" in 2008.

Lucienne Peiry has served as Director of Research and International Relations at the Collection de l'Art Brut from 2012 till 2014.

Prior to directing the museum, Lucienne Peiry worked as an independent exhibition curator and as a cultural journalist with the Swiss broadcasting corporation Radio Télévision Suisse.