Jean-Albert Cartier (15 May 1930 – 27 December 2015) was a French art critic and director of cultural institutions.
Born in Marseille, passionate about the visual arts, Cartier studied at the École du Louvre.
[1] He was an art critic for 15 years at Combat.
In 1968, he founded the Ballet-Théâtre contemporain, then successively became director of the Grand Théâtre d'Angers and of the Centre national de danse contemporaine [fr] of Angers (1972-1978), director of the Ballet-Théâtre of Nancy (1978-1987).
Cartier was also director of the Théâtre musical de Paris (1980-1988), administrator of the Paris Opera (1989-1991), delegate for music programmes at the music directorate at Radio France (1991-1993), general director of the Opéra de Nice (1994-1997), founder of the Europa Danse Project of Grasse in 1999 and president of the International Dance Institute with the Unesco.