The National Assembly of Art and Design Schools 2025 is taking place this week at the Fine Arts School of Marseille, bringing together representatives from across France's artistic education sector to address mounting financial challenges threatening these institutions. The four-day gathering, held from November 4-7, marks the first such assembly in a decade since the previous edition in Lyon.
The urgency of the situation became starkly apparent with the permanent closure of the Superior School of Art and Design of Valenciennes earlier this year. Founded in 1782, the historic institution was forced to shut its doors due to lack of funding, highlighting the precarious financial state facing many art schools across the country. This closure has galvanized the artistic education community to mobilize efforts to prevent additional institutions from suffering the same fate.
France's public artistic education network encompasses 44 superior art and design schools, 26 preparatory classes, and 54 amateur practice schools distributed throughout the country. This extensive network plays a crucial role in training future artists and art specialists, as explained by Bernhard Rüdiger, artist and research director at the National Superior School of Fine Arts in Lyon.
"French schools achieve very good results, but this depends on how we evaluate them," Rüdiger emphasized. "We cannot evaluate artistic training the same way we evaluate industrial professions. Artists are independent professionals who are great inventors of careers. We train people who, in five or ten years, will invent specific domains in which they will work autonomously."
Rüdiger acknowledged the real economic difficulties facing the art and design world, describing it as complex, but firmly rejected the notion that career opportunities are lacking. "On the contrary, demand for access to schools is strongly increasing, and career inventiveness is experiencing strong growth," he noted. "Today, schools continue to train many cultural actors."
The assembly comes at a critical time when these institutions must navigate increasingly tight budgets while maintaining their mission to foster artistic innovation and creativity. The closure of Valenciennes serves as a sobering reminder of what's at stake for the entire network of French art and design education.
Beyond the immediate financial concerns, the gathering addresses broader questions about the future of artistic education in France and how these institutions can adapt to changing economic realities while preserving their essential role in nurturing the next generation of artists and designers. The outcomes of this week's discussions could significantly influence the direction of artistic education policy and funding decisions across the country.
