This Woman Is Trying To Make Arles The Cultural Capital Of The South Of France

With a $175 million arts complex called Luma Arles, Maja Hoffmann (an heir to the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceuticals fortune) “is trying to transform [the city of 35,000] through art, much in the same way that the artist Donald Judd reimagined a town called Marfa in Texas, or the Dia Art Foundation rebuilt the upstate New York town of Beacon, using art as a draw and an economic engine.” (Not to mention, of course, Bilbao — and, of course, the architect of Luma Arles is Frank Gehry.) “In doing so, Ms. Hoffmann has taken on a role that was once reserved for public officials and city planners: imagining the future and then building it.”