MALÉRARGUES AND YOU
A news update and appeal from Malérargues to family, friends, and community
A PLACE LIKE NO OTHER…
The Château de Malérargues, in the beautiful Cévennes region of southern France, is home to a remarkable living tradition of work on the human voice as a vehicle for personal expression and development.
For those who know it, Malérargues is more than the buildings. It is the sound of voices carrying from the Magnanerie theatre and the studios down to the Orangerie. It is the feeling of climbing the stone stairs and walking the corridors, the joy of meals and conversations shared beneath the mulberry trees, the thrilling first glimpse of the château on arrival. It is a place where time slows, where you are welcomed back year after year, and where the deep, transformational work on the human voice has evolved without interruption for over half a century.
WHY MALÉRARGUES NEEDS YOU NOW…
Malérargues is currently owned by the SCI Fondation Malérargues, a property management company set up when the Roy Hart Theatre moved there in 1974. The workshops, performances and other voice-related activities that take place at Malérargues are run by the Roy Hart Voice Centre, a not-for-profit association which rents the theatre, studios, and student accommodation from the SCI for its activities.
For fifty years the founding generation has watched over Malérargues. But they are growing older now, and the estate they saved has needs that are becoming urgent — most pressingly, the roof needs repair. As they reach the end of their lives, the resources to meet what the estate now needs are beyond their reach and their shares pass to heirs who often have no direct connection with this place or the voice work.
The Malérargues Endowment Fund was created in 2021 for exactly this moment: to hold Malérargues safe, to protect the work that happens here, and to keep a roof over the heads of those who live here. But for legal reasons, the Fund cannot spend a penny on the estate until it owns it. Completing the transfer is what frees us, at last, to look after the place that has looked after so many. Removing that barrier of ownership is the single most important thing we can do together to secure the future of Malérargues.
THE WAY FORWARD…
Working with professional legal advisers, we have established that the SCI shareholders can give the entire property to the Malérargues Endowment Fund outright. This gift is a donation, not a sale, so there is no purchase price. And because the Malérargues Endowment Fund is a French endowment fund (fonds de dotation) operating in the public interest there will be no property-transfer taxes to pay.
At their annual meeting in July 2026, the active shareholders gave their unanimous backing to preparing this transfer. Once it is complete, Malérargues will be owned by an entity legally bound to care for it — and free, at last, to repair that roof.
For further details about who owns and runs Malérargues today and exactly how the transfer will work, see here.
HOW YOU CAN HELP…
The act of giving the estate by itself costs nothing — however, making the gift real carries administrative costs. There are lawyers' and notaries' fees, registration and other costs, which amount to €45,000.
This amount is all that stands in the way of giving Malérargues a secure future, and it is what we are asking our community to raise together.
Every contribution counts, whatever its size. To give a sense of scale: €50 helps, €500 moves us meaningfully toward the goal, €1,000 or even €5,000 makes you one of the appeal's cornerstone donors — please give whatever feels right to you.
Everyone who gives will be invited to be acknowledged on the donor wall on our website — named, if they wish, among those who helped secure Malérargues for the generations of voices still to come — and kept closely informed as the property transfer moves forward.
This is the first step in a longer plan to put Malérargues on a lasting footing, which we look forward to sharing with you in the months ahead. But it all begins here, with this transfer — nothing else is possible until it is done.
Our goal: €45,000.