" The restored Le Gall Cannery and its Museum will transmit the memory of the fish canning activities of the first half of the 20th century in Brittany and will be an essential factor in revitalising the town centre and attracting tourists to the area. "Christine Zamuner, Mayor of Loctudy, 2014-2026*(2022) term.

In 2015, Jean-Philippe Chapalain, husband of one of Alexis le Gall's granddaughters and owner, and Jean Laouenan, deputy mayor in charge of finance and the economic and tourist development of Loctudy, met to take stock of the museum project.

After an exchange between the two parties, the buildings and collections were classified as Historic Monuments. In order to support the start of the project, the association of "Friends of the Alexis le Gall Cannery" (ACAL), chaired by Guy Cosnard, is created. The commune signed a 40-year long lease with Jean-Philippe Chapalain in order to manage the restoration of the building.

It was then that Jean Laouenan began to work on the development of the project around 3 issues:

• The preservation of a unique and exceptional industrial heritage,
• The attractiveness of the territory and the promotion of its maritime identity,
• The transmission of the memory of a fragment of local history.

Following these operations, the elected representatives of the commune of Loctudy, under the mandate of Mrs Zamuner, voted for the commune to join the Fondation du Patrimoine in order to reduce the communal share of the financing of the project to restore and develop the former Le Gall cannery. The application for the Alexis Le Gall cannery, written by Jean Laouenan in the context of the call for projects "Coastal heritage", was selected by the Brittany region as the winner of the competition aimed at increasing awareness, conservation, development and innovation around the various estuarine, coastal and maritime heritages. The Amarres office, composed of the curator Marie Prigent-Viegas and the documentalist Amélie Garrot-Hascoët, began writing the scientific and cultural project.

The launch of the works

In 2017, the Loctudy Town Hall acquired the buildings and its collections. At the same time, it renounced the long lease that bound the commune to the Chapalain couple. Finally, the scientific and cultural project, drafted by Marie Prigent-Viegas and Amélie Garrot-Hascoët of the AMARES firm, will be presented to the Loctudy Town Hall. This will define the Museum's guidelines for the coming years.

Following this presentation, donations will be collected from the Fondation Crédit Agricole du Finistère and Fondation des Pays de France and the Brittany delegation of the "Vieilles Maisons Françaises". The restoration project will also be selected by the "Loto du Patrimoine - Mission Bern" in 2018.

With the support of AMARES, the ACAL volunteers are going to proceed with the inventory of the collections. The work on the collections has enabled the architectural firm Lizerand, the scenographer Anthony Hamon and the museographer Pierre Combes to present the preliminary museographic project to the elected representatives. The architectural restoration work (roofing, masonry) can now begin!

The call for tenders for the "scenographic development of the former Alexis le Gall cannery" took place in June 2020. After selecting the service providers for each lot, the project for the fitting out of the Museum can finally begin. In January 2021, the Lizerand firm will enter its final phase of architectural work. The first collections will return to the Museum, largely thanks to the support of the technical services of the commune of Loctudy and the volunteers of ACAL.

At the end of August, the Museum is now ready to welcome the first visitors! The inauguration of the Museum took place, in the presence of regional, departmental and Loctudist elected officials, on 9 September 2021. The first visitors entered the Museum on Friday 10 September 2021.