Boasting iconic architecture designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, the Centre Pompidou was inaugurated in 1977. In a single building, it houses one of the world's top museums, containing Europe's leading collection of modern and contemporary art, as well as cinemas, theatres, educational activity areas and a research library for 20th and 21st century art. It also has partnerships with a public reading library and a music research institute (IRCAM). As a platform creating links between society and contemporary creation, the Centre Pompidou is a place for the people. It welcomes over 3 million visitors each year, and its mission is to reach out to an ever-broader public, offering them the means to explore the most recent and active contemporary creation by establishing close relations with artists.