With its new articles of association, the EPCC Cité du design-ESADSE looks to the future

At a meeting held in Saint-Étienne on 29 November 2023, attended in particular by the Prefect for Loire Alexandre Rochatte, the board of directors of the Public Institution for Cultural Cooperation (EPCC) Cité du design-École Supérieure d’Art et Design de Saint-Étienne (ESADSE) unanimously approved a revision of the institution's articles of association aimed at refocusing its missions on two pillars: the art and design school and the dissemination of design. This revision is accompanied by the creation of new governance bodies and an ancillary budget for the activities of the Cité du design, which is to be strictly separate from the funding of ESADSE. These new articles of association, which take effect on 1 January 2024, allow the EPCC to plan for the future and write the next new page in its history. Anchored in the heart of Saint-Étienne's creative district, itself in the throes of a far-reaching transformation, the EPCC is reasserting its positioning as a cultural establishment with a regional, national and international reach.

The EPCC Cité du design-ESADSE is one public institution with two constituent part, the Saint-Étienne Higher School of Art and Design (ESADSE) and the Cité du design. After a dozen years packed with achievements and events, punctuated most notably by several Biennales Internationales Design Saint-Étienne, in March 2023 the institution's board of directors adopted an action plan aimed at reasserting its public service missions, whilst also allowing for a joint strategy with all of its founder members (State, Region, Saint-Étienne Métropole, Ville de Saint-Étienne) in order to secure its long-term funding and end the structural risk of budgetary imbalances. This plan provided for a revision of the articles of association of the EPCC originally set up in January 2010.

This revision of the EPCC's articles of association was unanimously approved by the 13 members of the board of directors at a meeting held on Wednesday 29 November 2023. The changes made come into force on 1 January 2024. Essentially they concern three areas: the missions of the EPCC, which are at once consolidated and refocused around two pillars, the art and design school and the dissemination of design; the governance bodies which have been revamped to accompany a the institution in defining its long-term vision and implementing its projects; the securing of the budget, with the creation of main budget for the ESADSE and an ancillary budget for the activities linked to the dissemination of design.

The members of the EPCC Cité du design-ESADSE's board of directors are representatives of the State (Prefect and Regional Director of Cultural Affairs for Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional authority, and the metropolitan and city authorities, Saint-Étienne Métropole and Ville de Saint-Étienne, as well as student and staff representatives and two "qualified persons" (experts). The board is chaired by Marc Chassaubéné, President of the EPCC.