Skip to content

The website is currently being migrated. All features, and more, will return progressively over the coming days.

Société de Lecture
Become a memberFR
Menu
The grand staircase and historic rooms of the Société de Lecture

A Genevan institution

The Société de Lecture

An independent place where books, ideas and generations have met for more than two centuries.

Hours

Opening hours

Monday–Friday
9h–18h30
Library, Saturday
9h–12h

Opening hours may vary on public holidays.

Who are we?

A historic institution that is very much alive

In Geneva’s old town, the Société de Lecture brings together a library, reading rooms and a programme of cultural events under one roof. It nurtures the freedom to read, curiosity and the pleasure of conversation.

Members, guests, authors, researchers and artists exchange ideas in a setting that is historic, welcoming and open to the contemporary world.

The libraries and reading rooms

Our mission

Read, understand, share

The Society provides access to carefully chosen collections and creates opportunities to meet people who write, think, tell stories and pass on knowledge.

  • A library and personalised advice
  • Lectures, workshops and performances
  • Rooms made for reading and conversation
Join the Society

The team

The permanent team

Eight people welcome members, run the library and carry the cultural programme day after day.

  • Portrait de Ann Huber-Sigwart
    Ann Huber-SigwartDirector

    An art historian trained in London, formerly of the Serpentine Gallery and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, she has led the house since 2025.

  • Portrait de Emmanuel Tagnard
    Emmanuel TagnardCultural director and communication

    A journalist at RTS for twenty-two years and an author of walking narratives, he carries the programme and the communication.

  • Portrait de Olivia Fauchier-Magnan
    Olivia Fauchier-MagnanAccountant and youth projects manager

    A finance graduate with private-banking and controlling experience, she keeps the books and drives the youth projects.

  • Portrait de Nathalie Bouffartigue
    Nathalie BouffartigueExecutive assistant

    Trained in literature and then legal secretarial work, she joined the Société in 2007 and keeps the secretariat running.

  • Portrait de Katia Andronova
    Katia AndronovaDigital strategy, marketing and venue hire manager

    A business economist trained at Geneva's HEG, she leads digital strategy, marketing and the hire of the salons.

  • Portrait de Maxime Canals
    Maxime CanalsCurator of the collections, librarian

    The house librarian since 2003, after a spell at the UN reference desk, he has a thousand and one stories of the collections to tell.

  • Portrait de Marie Merminod
    Marie MerminodLibrarian

    An anthropologist turned librarian, a 2022 graduate of Geneva's HEG, she reads in French, English and Spanish.

  • Portrait de Christiane Bernadac
    Christiane BernadacLibrarian

    A musician turned librarian, at the Société since 2008, she gladly shares her reading — all of it.

The Committee of the Société de Lecture gathered in the salons

Organisation

The Committee

The Committee brings together volunteer members elected by the General Assembly for four years. It plans the lecture cycles and supports the permanent team.

Manuel Bouvier (chair), Antoinette Borgnana (vice-chair), Isabelle Jacob-Nebout (treasurer), Christian Buenzod (chair of the Reading Committee), Micheline Louis-Courvoisier, Mariana Pictet, Philippe de Moerloose, Pierre Hazan, Caroline Turrettini, Sébastien Brunschwig, Diane Demierre.

The Reading Committee gathered around a library table

The Reading Committee

Made up of volunteer bibliophiles appointed by the Committee, the Reading Committee selects close to a thousand acquisitions a year and writes the reviews of the monthly bulletin Plume au Vent.

Christian Buenzod (chair), Françoise Berlier, Bruno Desgardins, Pascale Dhombres, Jacques-Simon Eggly, Catherine Fauchier-Magnan, Fadiah Haller-Assaad, Tatiana Hervieu-Causse, Hélène Leibkutsch, Sharon Mordasini, Léa Moreau Shmatenko, Soussan Raadi-Djalili, Jean-Bernard Rondeau and Dominique Thouvenin, together with the librarians Christiane Bernadac, Maxime Canals and Marie Merminod.

A NextGen gathering in the salons of the Société de Lecture

The NextGen Committee

The NextGen Committee designs gatherings for readers aged 20 to 45: stimulating, current and convivial encounters that enrich the programme of the house.

The Foundation

The Société de Lecture Foundation

Created in 1997, the Société de Lecture Foundation owns the Ancien Hôtel du Résident de France, the Société's home at Grand-Rue 11.

It maintains, restores and enhances the building, provides it to the Société de Lecture free of charge and supports its needs through investments in the premises and furniture. Three members of the Committee sit on its board.

Visual communication

The photographers of the house

The images of the site and of the Société's publications are the work of two Geneva photographers.

  • Portrait de Rebecca Bowring
    Rebecca Bowring

    A graduate of CEPV and HEAD, exhibited from Zurich to Vancouver, she signs part of the house's imagery.

  • Portrait de Magali Dougados
    Magali Dougados

    A stage photographer at home backstage at La Comédie and the Grand Théâtre, she portrays the Société's guests.

Your first visit

Start with an event

The cultural programme is the best way to discover the house, its voices and its atmosphere.

Explore the programme