ESADSE (Higher School of Art and Design Saint-Etienne France) 

Location
Saint-Etienne, France

Since
1989

Disciplines
Design and research post-diploma

Degrees offered
Master of design, Master of art,

Duration
2 years

Number of third cycle students
7 students researchers

Structure
The Higher School of Art and Design of Saint-Etienne (ESADSE), formerly school of fine arts, is one of the 44 schools of fine arts in France certified by the Ministry of Culture and Communication.  Since January 2010, the Cite du design and the Higher School of Art and Design of Saint-Etienne are grouped together in the same structure: a Public Institution of Cultural Cooperation (EPCC) with a common objective. The aim is to develop research and innovation throughout creation.

Created in 1989, the Post-diploma degree Design & Research at the ESADSE is a place of experimentation and development of projects based on a wide and diversified vision of design, the ESADSE Post-diploma Degree “Design and Research” operates at the same time as a creation laboratory and a project incubator. Whatever the field of design in which it develops (object, product or service design, graphic, digital or sound design), the research is included as a tool of action, of distortion and transformation of the real world; and the designer is regarded as being a vector of questioning of our ways of life and our relationships with objects, signs and contemporary environments – the designer is at the same time a revealing of today’s mutations and an actor of these evolutions.
The research students are lead to develop a project directed by themes decided in cooperation with them until a level of formalization allowing them to assure the production, the diffusion and the communication in the better conditions, as well as taking part in the development and the shaping of the review Azimuts.

Entry requirements
To apply, the candidates must have completed a diploma equivalent to a Master II (European standard). Candidates must have been actively involved in developing their own artistic project, outside of an academic institution for a minimum of one year.
Good working knowledge of French or enrolment in the school’s French language learning program is required.

Program requirements
At the end of the first year students present the art works they have produced during the year, their exhibition and publication projects, and the results of the theoretical research they are conducting to a jury made up of the Program La Seine director, a Program teacher and an external art world personality.
To obtain the diplôme they have to realize an exhibition accompanied by a publication in a professional site, and defend their work to a jury made up of the ENSBA director, the director of the Program, an ENSBA teacher and two external art world personalities.

Publications and conferences
The requirement of a final publication was added in 2009. Therefore, publications are expected to start in 2011. Depending on the quality, some of them will be published by ENSBA editions.

Supervision
Students in the program are supervised by the Program director, one appointed professor, a yearly guest participant in charge of the research program, and other guest participants like artists, professors, art critics and curators.

Embedding within the institution
La Seine students share a studio located in the centre of the École, the Atelier Devot, on three different levels: the first floor is the studio workspace, the second level is a mezzanine equipped for the production of new media digital work, and the top floor area is allocated to meetings and discussion sessions.

Funding and stipendia
Students receive a grant for research and production of up to € 3000 annually, depending on their  level of participation in the program. Each year, two apartments at the The Cité Internationale des arts are offered to students of the Program. The students are chosen by the admission jury.

www.ensba.fr/laseine