Choosing to pursue a degree at an art school is a bold move. It’s bold because it commits you to a course of study that isn’t standardized, yet isn’t without rules either. It is bold because it requires an intense personal commitment that undoubtedly touches on what is most unique to you, yet cannot be achieved without a keen awareness of the collective—whether that of the school, the studio, or any artistic or community group in which you participate or will participate. Making this choice means that you are actively ready to be trained. This does not mean being molded or reshaped, nor is it limited to simply being informed. Rather, it does indeed entail being “trained”—and, moreover, trained in the invention of forms, the exploration of their languages, and the expansion of their boundaries in various contexts, from the most political to the most intimate. This training is not uniform. It is not entirely predictable. It adapts to the unique paths that are taking shape: your own, but also those of all the students and all the faculty members—many of whom are also artists and who, in some respects, continue to learn through their interaction with you. In other words, this choice of a bold educational path is much broader than a personal choice. It is also a choice made by the school—the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts—which, too, is undergoing a transformation.
In this regard, the 2026–2027 academic year will mark the start of major construction projects, particularly on the Cours d’Honneur and Cours Bonaparte, which will affect access and traffic flow within the School. We must therefore approach this year with a firm commitment to the collective efforts required to organize, under the best possible conditions, the program you have chosen to pursue. We must also approach this year by extending the warmest welcome to our new students (whether in the undergraduate program, the Via Ferrata program, the Herodotus program, the Fresco & Art in Context track, or the SACRe doctoral program), as well as to the new studio directors joining us: Katinka Bock and Myriam Mihindou, as well as Sébastien Lifschitz, who is replacing Clément Cogitore for the first semester; the new visiting professor, Jill Mulleady; and the new professors who will each lead one semester of the graduate-level guest seminar: Barbara Glowczewski and Mohamed Amer Meziane. They, too, have made a bold choice in joining the School. Together, we will be able to work on the research theme “Extractivist Legacies,” which will engage the School throughout the year, while also adopting a stance toward artificial intelligence that is neither blindly subservient nor unilaterally hostile. These questions are on all of our minds, whether in Saint-Germain-des-Prés or Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine; the key is not to simply endure them but to integrate them constructively into the shared learning experience we all share.
Éric de Chassey
Director
