«Demain l’école d’art, actes des assises nationales des écoles supérieures d’art»
Launch of Demain l’école d’art, actes des assises nationales des écoles supérieures d’art publication edited by the ANdÉA, National Association of Art Schools.
With: Emmanuel Tibloux, president of ANdÉA and headteacher of the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon; Alaric Garnier, graphic designer of the book; Jean-Michel Géridan, member of the board of directors of ANdÉA and headteacher of the École supérieure d’art de Cambrai; and Madeleine Aktypi, poet, media theorist and practitioner, professor at the Ecole Média Art Fructidor of Châlon-sur-Saône.
“Often, groups which share common interests, values and activities wish to get together to debate, to review their situation and provide new prospects for future action. Sometimes a publication bears witness to this, with the aim of opening up and making public this period of exploration. This is commonly, (oddly, perhaps, when you think about it) called proceedings. Hence this volume, the intention of which is to make public the lectures and debates which took place over the two days of 29th and 30th of October 2015, where we gathered at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts and the Subsistances site in Lyon for the conference organised by ANdEA (Association nationale des écoles supérieures d’art), and held on the subject of “Tomorrow’s Art School”.
This “we” in fact represents some 450 people who came together to speak, listen and communicate on the situation and prospects for publicly-funded art colleges, these institutions which are at once both complex and exciting and also necessary and fragile, situated as they are at the intersection of higher education and artistic creation, and of regional and national policy. The art school community was also in attendance, in the shape of teachers, students, principals, administrators, technicians and representatives from the whole gamut of services which make up our establishments: studies, research, libraries, international relations, communication, vocational orientation, management and development. A number of other parties were also present who, whilst they may not be involved with art schools on a daily basis, are all at least highly invested in them: executive board members who are either local elected representatives or qualified individuals, artists and designers, exhibition curators, art critics, representatives of art centres, galleries, cultural foundations and services, intellectuals, academics and representatives of the Culture Minister herself, Fleur Pellerin, who also conducted the closing session. […]
Whilst there is a distinct sense of disquiet in these discourses, they were conducted less in a spirit of alarm than in a spirit of enquiry and critical analysis. Examining and analysing first of all what constitutes an art school, what might be revealed when it is examined in all of its various dimensions: educational, scientific, administrative, social and political. Then examining and analysing with its administrators and partners, in the clear awareness that art schools are not free-floating institutions, but an integral part of national and local policy, representing various higher education qualifications, cultural, economic and (often competing) regional interests […]
The aim of this publication, as we understand it, is not merely to record or reproduce, it is also to play a role in promoting awareness across the board of the fundamental role of art schools. »
Extract taken from « Passage aux Actes” Emmanuel Tibloux, foreword to this edition.
