Marie-Cécile Zinsou is a French-Beninese art historian and entrepreneur. She studied in France and England, and began teaching art history in Benin at the École secondaire des métiers d’art Sos Hermann Gmeiner, in Abomey Calavi in 2003.In 2005 she founded the Fondation Zinsou in Cotonou, Benin. The Foundation Zinsou is dedicated to contemporary art and its dissemination - a foundation she presides over. In 2013 she opened the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ouidah, curating most of its exhibitions and working with numerous contemporary artists. Her research into contemporary creation has also led her to build up a collection of archives on Dahomey and the African continent. These archives are published and accessible to all in Benin. Marie-Cécile is President of the Boards of Directors of the Académie de France à Rome - Villa Médicis and the Maison Maria Casarès, as well as Vice-President of the Institut des Cultures d’Islam. An Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale - a grant for young artists - in Japan in 2014, in recognition of the work of the Fondation Zinsou.