École Supérieure d’Art et de Design d’Orléans

Mission Statement

The Orléans School of Art and Design is an art school with a specificity: Design and only Design is taught. Its approach is resolutely artistic and turns towards the most contemporary questions. Here, it is a question of the future of the printed and digital edition – or both together; of IoT and data sculpture, of ecological cohabitation and design commons, of media archeology and network design. This gives the school a somewhat unique place in the educational landscape of Design in France and in Europe.

Orléans School of Art and Design revives the social, scientific and cultural role of art through design. The design it teaches could be defined as art that is committed, at the heart of our current society, and which seeks through art to answer issues raised by the technological environment and the industrial society. Since the latter has changed nature over the past few years, the school has put emphasis on the digital environment. It offers students practical and theoretical knowledge, methods and means, to allow them to both assess fairly and act on this environment by transforming the effects it produces on our society, ways of living and cultures.

It gives them the ability to link these effects to ecological, political and social issues as well as ideologies, discourses and emerging sciences. It enables them to situate their action in the long history of art and in the milieu of modern art and design.

Our time needs designers, i.e people able to pick up signals of how the world is, and to make the world of tomorrow better than it is. To do so, designers must have the ability to engage in dialogue and create with urban planners, writers, artists, architects, engineers, scientists, administrators, politicians and men and women in the business community. That is why, we think the designer of the 21st century must, at the same time, have the intelligence and sensitivity of the artist, master the methods of design and have a sound, practical, technical and intellectual education.

On this point Orléans School of Art and Design has many assets to offer: a committed teaching staff, technical workshops equipped the most advanced tools; sustained activity in conjunction with the academic community in the field of research in and through art and design; a productive, local business and economic fabric… On the strength of these projects with public and private partners and its many relations with schools and universities in France and abroad; it welcomes 300 students, at least twenty different nationalities, and each year attracts a great number of candidates from all over France and the world.

International Role

Orléans School of Art and Design actively participates in the Erasmus+ programme and commits to implementing the fundamental principles stated in the Erasmus Charter which was granted by the European Commission for the 2014–2020 period. 

Orléans School of Art and Design has 38 partner schools (in 15 different countries) of which 24 have an inter-institutional Erasmus+ agreement. The quality of the partnerships is based on the similitude and correlation of the pedagogy and projects without targeting a particular geographical area. In the coming years, Orléans School of Art and Design will endeavour to make its network of international partners coherent with its school project centred on ecological, technical, digital and political issues.

Thanks to international partnerships, Orléans School of Art and Design encourages the geographical mobility of students, personnel and teachers in Europe and third-party countries via the Erasmus+ programme. At every decision level concerning the in-coming and outgoing students, Orléans School of Art and Design strives to guarantee equity, parity and non-discrimination by implementing transparent and inclusive selection plans.

International mobilty allows students to be better prepared for the employment market and meeting other cultures. The mobile teachers are multipliers of mobility, more able to accompany the students in their pedagogical specialization, to open windows on the world. The deep understanding of the course outlines integrating foreign mobility in the training curriculum guarantees the durability of international partnerships. During the coming years, the school will support mixed mobilities by updating the supervision of students.

Approximately 10% of the students at Orleans School of Art and Design come from abroad. 50% of non-French- speakers come from China, South Korea, and Latin America and have been enrolled through the Degree Equivalency Committee or the entrance exam. The other 50% of non-French-speakers are students hosted in the framework of our bilateral agreements with Erasmus+ or outside Europe (BCI for  Québec, or bilateral partnerships with Brazil, India , China, Israel, the USA, etc.). Orléans School of Art and Design has compulsory language lessons in all of its course programmes.

Regarding the teaching of English, many teachers are capable of adapting their words into English for exchange students, even if the language of classes is in French, except for the teaching completely in English. Orleans School of Art and Design has a pool of bilingual teachers, including Polish, German, Italian, and Hungarian. These complementary linguistic skills strongly contribute to the integration of incoming exchange students and/or personnel.

Regarding international co-operation, we host foreign, artist and designer workshops, in particular, during our “International Week” held since 2018. It is the opportunity to welcome foreign participants, allowing students to become familiar with the pedagogy of the schools they could visit.

In addition to regular and ad hoc meetings, during the seminars or exhibitions, we regularly visit our European partners, for student follow-up, the organization of mobility, the contents of courses or workshops.

Orléans School of Art and Design is making the development of research its top priority. It has a research unit (ÉCOLAB) structured by four research programmes. In the coming years, Orléans School of Art and Design will develop partnerships with international schools and universities according to the orientations and needs of its research programmes. Orleans School of Art and Design will, in particular, undertake a project for innovative, international, co-operation, mixing schools and universities, on the axes of its research. The exchange of international research teachers is already in its strategy for the development of research. It could also lean on the STUDIUM organization, linked to the university of Orléans, who organize this type of exchange, instead of organizing these exchanges itself in the framework of the Erasmus + programme.

National Role

A true generator of culture, Orléans School of Art and Design regularly hosts events, exhibitions (in its Gallery) and conferences (at the Musée des Beaux-Arts). It is an essential actor in the life of the conurbation through its inclusion in the local, cultural life (national dance centre, national drama centre, regional contemporary arts centre, house of architecture, theatre, current music scene, etc.). 

Unique in its approach to design, Orléans School of Art and Design is crucial in the network of public art and design schools under the pedagogical authority of the Ministry of Culture, and has a true European dimension.