In an interview with the “world”, the manager exhibits her projects for her establishment, faced with many challenges, architectural and pedagogical.
Interview by Emmanuelle Lequeux
Named in January 2022 at the head of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, in the succession of Jean de Loisy, Alexia Fabre, former director of Mac Val de Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne ), reveals his projects on the eve of the establishment’s open day, Saturday January 28.
You arrived a year ago at the head of the Fine Arts in Paris. What priority projects have you set up?
Beaux-arts is a school, but also a museum, a heritage site, a publishing house: several missions that are to reconcile, or rather to put to music. One of the emergencies that stand out for us is the maintenance of the building. What was done was well done, but it was cosmetic. The problems are structural. The large courtyard collapses, it must be said. The copy of the last judgment in the chapel is in danger, so we have to find money to restore it. Just like the Study Palace.
and concerning pedagogy?
There is a certain determinism of the building, which is struggling to make a link. It is the house of air currents, with a lot of empty spaces, separate workshops: the place slows down relations. This was my first approach: to contradict this determinism to create a link. We have aroused many common moments, created a hospitality group that welcomes new arrivals. This is the common thread of this year. In 2024, we will insist on the ecological transition, which already irrigates everything, especially in the production workshops of Saint-Ouen, where non-polluting, non-toxic materials are reinvented.
you integrate this year Parcoursup. Will this change your recruitment methods?
The competition remains after a first selection on file with Parcoursup, with a drawing test, a theoretical, then a meeting between the applicant and the teaching team. We are looking for singularities, outside of school criteria. The question of diversity in our recruitment is fundamental, the ministry is as attached to it as us. For years, private prepas have had great power, which has helped draw a marked profile. Our schools must offer a counterpoint. Our public prep, via Ferrata, created in 2016, is a success, it must last. She doubled her workforce two years ago, to welcome fifty students. One hundred percent of them are admitted to an art school!
The specificity of the fine arts of Paris is due to its structure in workshops carried out by artists. It is often criticized. What is your analysis?
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