Decryption
The Valenciennes school of art and design will undoubtedly close its doors in 2025. © Photo provided by the establishment
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Caroline Celle, published on October 11, 2023
1 min
Due to its financial instability, the Valenciennes school of art and design (Esad) is preparing to close its doors in 2025. Many students have mobilized strongly to save the establishment, which can no longer accommodate new promotion. A decision still a little difficult to swallow.
The announcement came like a hammer: the Valenciennes School of Art and Design (Esad), in Hauts-de-France, will probably close its doors in 2025. During a board meeting in the summer of 2023, Esad learned that it would lose your accreditation beyond this date, due to its lack of financial strength.
However, without this accreditation, granted by the Ministries of Culture and Higher Education, impossible for the school to issue its bac+3 diplomas (national art diploma – DNA) and bac+5 (higher national diploma in plastic expression – DNSEP). A cold shower for the school and its few students still present.
The closure of the Esad de Valenciennes envisaged for years
The situation is not surprising: in 2012, the mayor of Valenciennes, Laurent Degallaix, announced that he would gradually reduce subsidies municipal authorities of the establishment. In fact, in ten years, these subsidies have passed from 1.4 million euros to 350,000 euros. However, Esad is a public territorial art school subsidized two-thirds by local authorities.
“When I joined the course seven years ago, we could already hear rumors about big budget problemsremembers Théa Laurent, recently graduated student and former representative of Esad within Andéa (National Association of Higher Art Schools). The school was seen as a boat adrift and the students demonstrated to defend it with the City.”
No new students neither via Parcoursup nor in master’s degree
The situation takes another turn in the fall of 2022. The Valenciennes school announces a deficit of 300,000 euros and threats of closure are being felt. “The teachers and students mobilized by all means to try to save Esad, relates Chloé Terrée, former DNA student (equivalent to a degree). We held demonstrations and we even occupied the premises night and day for a month! It was psychologically exhausting but we had a lot of hope at the time. We finally understood that we could not not having dialogue with communities.“
From 2023, the board of directors decides that the school will not be able to not recruit new students on Parcoursup for the following year. She will not be able to no longer recruit in DNSEP (equivalent to master’s degree). “We no longer have students in the first year or in the fourth year, confirms Stéphane Dwernicki, the director of the school. But by the start of the 2025 school year, all those registered will be able to complete their bachelor’s degree or master.“
However, the school fought to regain its financial balance at the start of the 2023 school year. In the payroll, two teaching positions were eliminated, while others became part-time. “We made cuts everywhere in the budget, explains Stéphane Dwernicki. We are very careful with our electricity expenses, we have obtained European subsidies to organize certain workshops… We have constraints but I believe that we have preserved the quality of teaching and projects.”
Thinking about the future after the closure of the art school
It was not enough. The City and Metropolis of Valenciennes maintain that they need working capital to stay afloat. But the director of Esad wants to believe that everything is still possible. “We could free up 20,000 euros over three years by installing monitoring tools,” he says. On paper, nothing prevents us from seeking future accreditation ! A school closing is a bad signal, we can never congratulate ourselves on that.“
The students appear more disenchanted. According to Yalhma, a fifth-year design student, most accepted the school’s closure. “There were around a hundred students last year and there are only around sixty this year,” she notes. The atmosphere is very different because the mobilization has subsided. We invested a lot in this battle, and now, we all want to move forward and enjoy the last moments together.”
Several students plan to complete their studies elsewhere but the situation is complex. Within the school, 50% of those enrolled are on scholarships, and most are from the region. Laurette is in her second year at Ésad and is one of those who will not be able to enter the master level in Valenciennes. “I have big questions about the third year because I am very attached to this school, she confides. But I think that I will join a sustainable schoolwhere I will have more peace of mind.”
Other art schools in the midst of a crisis
In the Hauts-de-France region, students from Valenciennes will still be able to go to schools in Tourcoing, Cambrai or Dunkirk. But the specialty of Esad de Valenciennes, eco-social design, will no longer be found nearby.
In France, several public art schools are in serious financial difficulty and must eliminate positions, as in Angoulême and Poitiers. The closure of the Valenciennes school could be the first in a long series.
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