Governments legislate to favour cultural partnerships. What meaning do official texts and actors give to these partnerships ? We analysed the content of Québec official texts and of semi-structured interviews conducted with twelve actors (n = 12) from the perspective of the justifications they presented. The author found that 30,9 % of the official texts and 28,4 % of the actors’ discourse justify cultural partnerships on the basis of the exploration of networks and the elaboration of projects. Nonetheless, since other adequate justifications are also mentioned, cultural partnerships stem from a compromise between several justifications.