Besides creating a new library and the transfer of the National Museum of Modern Art, the new Centre project incorporated the activities of the Centre for Contemporary Art in rue Berryer and the small team around François Mathey, which had pursued a dynamic policy of contemporary art exhibitions within the museum of decorative arts.
The 1970s saw the addition of a centre for musical creation based on the vision of composer Pierre Boulez, who had decided to leave France a few years previously to protest against the state of contemporary music in our country. The creation of the IRCAM project would at last enable him to return to France.