What role does the hand play in contemporary
creation, in arts and crafts? From 25 March to
7 April 2024, Saint-Étienne Higher School of Art
and Design - ESADSE (ESADSE) will be marching
to the beat of the latest stage of the Arts & Crafts
aujourd’hui European research programme, with
a week-long run of international workshops and
talks open to the general public and followed by
an exhibition to tie in with the European Artistic
Crafts Days.
A renewed interest in promoting local know-how and the search for
more environmentally responsible modes of production are at the
heart of the Arts & Crafts aujourd’hui programme, which is helping to
train artists and designers who want to address contemporary issues.
Managed by ESADSE, the programme brings together arts and crafts
and, among other things, seeks to question modes of production from
the point of view of the environmental stakes involved. From 25 to 29
March, some fifty students and teachers from the partner schools will
be at ESADSE to take part in seven different international workshops.
In addition to the workshops, there will be a series of talks by
renowned speakers open to all. An exhibition will be held at the Cité
du design from 4 to 7 April 2024.
We are very proud to be hosting so many students and teachers
from all over the world who have come to work with us in Saint-
Étienne at ESADSE on research subjects that are more relevant
than ever. The Arts & Crafts aujourd’hui programme promotes
innovation as well as seeking to transform the ways we look at
and use things by facilitating collaboration between the artistic
trades, craftspeople, designers and artists. There is a growing
feeling that now is the time to promote local know-how once
again. It is accompanied by an increased interest in the way
things are made and everything to do manual skills, the 'specific
intelligence of the hand'. This echoes the search for eco-
responsible modes of production in a post-industrial era and ties
in with the desire to rethink our relationship with objects given
the issues we now face.
