place for imparting knowledge

It is a transmission device unique in Europe, meant to perpetuate knowledge practiced only in a few workshops. Master of Arts Program – Students launch class of 2022 with eight new couples. For three years, the pair will benefit from tailor-made support to, on the one hand, ensure the transmission of techniques and knowledge and, on the other hand, assist the student to implement his professional projects.

This official title of Master of Art, created in 1994 by the Ministry of Culture, has been awarded to 149 professionals with extraordinary and rare knowledge. Once appointed, the mission of each Master of Arts is to pass this knowledge on to the Student of his choosing.

The eight pairs were selected by a jury following a procedure organized by the National Institute of Crafts (INMA), which pilots the program. Explanation with Chloe Battistoloproject manager for the Master of Arts-Student program.

Over nearly thirty years, 149 Masters of Art have been appointed in over a hundred different specialties. What is the purpose of this title awarded for life by the Ministry of Culture?

This Master of Art title has the primary objective of commerce sustainability through the transmission of knowledge. It was created in 1994 by the Ministry of Culture and has been piloted by the National Crafts Institute since 2012. This makes it possible to distinguish rare knowledge or technique possessions that have a training offer, but the low flow of people to be trained each year jeopardizes the maintenance of this offer. For other trades, there are no initial training courses, either because they never existed or because they have disappeared given the small flow of students trained each year.

Scarcity of knowledge can also be related to the depletion of resources or arrangement of these materials. It can even be specific to certain regions where the economic development of this knowledge-related sector is experiencing difficulties either because there are too few companies, or because of a lack of structuring of these companies which cannot live sustainably from them. activity.

But more than individual recognition, it is also a judgment of the execution of a quiet transmission between two individuals. The Master of Art has the technical know-how and knowledge whose impeccable mastery enables them to access non-standard sites. They are primarily people who want to pass on to their students what they often get throughout their lives.

How were the eight Art Master-Student pairs selected?

Cases took nearly a year to process. We ask the Master of Arts to remain active and be able to demonstrate several years of professional experience. He had to, in application, explain the technique and the workshop. The transmission project is jointly constructed between the Master of Art candidate and the student candidate who will be asked for experience and diplomas that are not necessarily in the Master of Art specialization as they generally come to seek specifically for this professional.

We also have a special eye on the economic activities of Master and Student workshops or third-party structures that host transmissions as we can have independent partners or factory employees for example. We ask for proof that the candidacy is built on working professional activity.

Finally our choice respects the perfect parity between the Master of art and the representation of the region. This year, five regions were represented in six handicraft areas. This representation is necessary to feed the tissue and create the emulsion.

Hence the importance of former students and art masters in this system…

After going through the nomination and transmission process, we actually mobilize the Master of Art network quite frequently to support current promotions and we keep in contact with past promotions. Overall, the program is a stepping stone for students as it gives them access to special recognition and support. Programs don’t always work like this, a change in method is possible thanks to the trust of the Ministry of Culture and the support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.

For some trades, it can take decades to help!

This program lasts for three years. The time required for the transmission to be effective?

Three years is too short a period to be the basis for a complete and complete transmission: for some trades, it takes decades to help! But this duration makes it possible to estimate the accelerated pace of the Student’s professional project and require spouses to spend more time outside the production context to work together in a specific organization. These three years represent the bare minimum required for the creation of a privileged space-time both outside and within the studio. Art Masters and Students should ponder over the best approach to adopt so that the three years in the program are put to the best use.

Transmission does not start or stop at the entrance and exit of the course because the pairs have submitted a joint application and got to know each other before the device via collaboration or frequency. We maintain this anteriority and no discoveries.

During this program, how did INMA’s support materialize?

INMA overcomes all obstacles that may arise in the student pathway. When applying, we ask them to develop a transmission project and organization. The pair will review throughout the year the techniques and knowledge they have planned to pass on to each other with related projects. Therefore, it is a theoretical expression that is always translated into practice thanks to the support that is its command. Outside of workshops, there are also professional meetings, study trips, and special research projects that cater to students’ professional projects.

Transmission provided by the Master of Art in his studio. INMA accepts educational programs that are built together and exchange very frequently – weekly or monthly – with partners to find out where they stand. He is also responsible for linking a network of Masters of Arts and professionals in arts and crafts and living heritage. He will also come to provide advice on administrative and budgetary management so that support concerns both professional practice and economic development in order to serve them as well as possible. It provides students with all the necessary resources for the success of their professional projects.

Finally, an allowance is paid by the INMA to the Art Master workshop to cover the materials and time spent in training. Note that INMA is not a training organization and the Master of Art – this Student course is not certified. We support professionals whose projects include knowledge transmission regardless of age, but we cannot replace initial training elsewhere.

What has been your focus during this program?

INMA’s ambition is to promote scarce knowledge, to ensure the serene passage of secret knowledge and advanced techniques from one person to another and to help new professional and creative identities to develop. We will try to see in a professional project the reflections around future practice challenges. For three years, our attention was totally on the Student with a global course vision to help him set priorities. We are always concerned about the continuity of our knowledge, but we don’t just support corporate takeovers: we also participate in the reorientation of activities or in the development of activities in new ways in terms of skills or equipment.

Then we demand the full, effective and serene transmission of a Master, ready to impart his knowledge and his traditional techniques to accompany a professional project that is not his own, to the Student. This relationship is non-hierarchical as the pair feeds on each other: The Student comes to seek the detailed, professional culture of the Teacher while the Guru comes to accompany the Student and agrees to play on certain knowledge he or she has to reflect on progress. from the practice. Program objectives are fully achieved when students make use of the knowledge gained to determine their own professional trajectory.

What is the role of the Ministry of Culture in this system?

The title Master of Art is ministerial so there is always a view from the Ministry of Culture: this one presides with INMA the organization of the selection, the formation of the jury and publishing the list of names in the Official Journal. Agreements are signed between INMA and professionals but each partner’s educational project is always communicated to the ministry which at the end of each year approves its renewal to the following year.