Workshops and experimentation spaces
Workshops represent the essential interface of art schools to educational projects. Their use is therefore most often reserved for students in the context of carrying out work related to educational projects, but also for artists in residence and invited by the school – sometimes interns as well as people enrolled in public courses. These spaces are under the responsibility of the workshop managers who ensure their proper management in terms of schedules (displayed at the entrance) and equipment maintenance.
Educational support technicians (TAP), who often have a personal artistic activity elsewhere, provide technical and often artistic assistance by sharing their experience.
Jewelry workshop
• Manager and associate teacher: Monika Brugger, Terhi Tolvanen
• Surface area: 121 m²
Contemporary jewelry is an artistic discipline that comes from a know-how and a workshop culture taught in art schools and where the workshops are not simply places of execution and learning of a purely technical know-how, but also places of reflection, articulated around the intrinsic qualities of the jewel and the complex evolution of body ornament. The question of jewelry has today become a polymorphic practice that seizes new territories of thought and contemporary creation (aesthetic freedom, use of current technologies, recourse to various materials, conceptual and critical attitudes) and constitutes new positions giving rise to new artistic forms and approaches.
The jewelry workshop, also called POatelier bijou, also offers the possibility of calling on the school's other workshops (ceramics, 3D, etc.) as an extension of the questions associated with contemporary jewelry.
Ceramic workshop
• Managers and associate teachers: Jessie Derogy, Flavie Cournil, Jessica Lajard, Anne Xiradakis, Emmanuel-Martin Bourdanove
• Educational support technicians: Mylène Brach-Jeulain, Gilles Bonnétat, Jean Savard.
• Area: 956 m2
The ceramic workshop is spread over two spaces.
The porcelain space is organized like a mini-manufactory: designing models, throwing in plaster, making molds, casting, stamping, high-fire colors, and finally glazing. It is equipped with three high-temperature electric kilns, two large-capacity gas kilns, and a dryer. It is used to develop projects by students, teachers, residents, and various external requests.
A second space is dedicated to working with clays other than porcelain. Here, students practice modeling and sculpting unique pieces, primarily in stoneware and terracotta. Hand-building, coiling, slab building, and the use of pottery wheels (two are available to students) are also possible. Finally, the school has established a decoration and oxide laboratory: low- and high-temperature ceramic coloring on all ceramic supports (raw, bisque-fired, and glazed), spraying, screen printing transfers, sandblasting, and the use of microscopes and cutting equipment.
Edition/silkscreen printing, lithography, engraving, typography workshop
• Associate teachers: Camille Vacher, Fabrice Caravaca, Yves Chaudouët, Nicolas Gautron
• Educational support technician: Eugénie Chat
• Surface area: 276 m²
The workshop is equipped with a laser printer and a Riso printer.
A finishing tool for the production of all types of publications is available. In addition, the workshop has a fleet of manual printing equipment such as intaglio presses, lithographic presses, screen printing and typography. The workshop is at the center of numerous educational programs ranging from introductory modules to the production of second-cycle dissertations.
Soft materials/textile/dyeing workshop
• Manager and associated teacher: Cécile Vignau, Ken Peat
• Educational assistance technician: Clara Salomon
• Surface area: 40 m² dyeing + 80 m² textile
The workshop uses different complementary techniques allowing for varied explorations around textile fibers in the fields of art or design: weaving, sewing, vegetable dyeing on thread/fabric, felting, screen printing, embroidery. Ecological practices are carefully developed: favored natural textile fibers (local wool, linen, etc.), annual assembly of a natural indigo vat, vegetable dyes based on extracts produced in Nouvelle-Aquitaine or harvested from the school garden, partnerships with local businesses, recycling of textile scraps/waste internally.
Volume workshop
• Coordinator and associate teachers: Jessica Lajard, Vincent Carlier, Dominique Mathieu
• Educational support technicians: Bruno Even and Kobas Verschuren.
• Areas: 658 m2 + 200 m² of outdoor practice
The volume workshop is equipped with professional machines mainly intended for wood and metal work (format saw, panel saw, band saws, calibrator, router, planer, thicknesser, wood lathe, MIG welding, arc, brazing, plasma cutting, portable power tools, etc.). It allows for versatile technical, plastic and methodological learning in professional conditions for the realization of projects (objects, sculptures, installations, display devices, models, prototypes, etc.).
Photography – video/sound workshop
• Manager: Fabrice Cotinat
• Educational support technician: Nicolas Gaillard
• Surface area: 50 m2 photo, 10m² sound and 52m² video
The workshop's photo space is reserved for those who question photography in their work. It is particularly transversal and the technician in charge provides in-depth support for all phases of work (shooting, selection, choice of formats, etc.). The workshop is equipped with computers and printers, including a large format, and a photo studio with professional shooting equipment. The workshop is also a place for experimentation.
Concerned about preserving the environment and offering students responsible practices, the school also has a film studio using natural and environmentally friendly printing and development products.
On the video side, the workshop allows work on animated images and sound, but also research and development around augmented or virtual reality and digital interfaces.
Infographics workshop
• Associate teachers: Corentin Ferbus, Pierre-Emmanuel Meunier, Serge Payen
• Area: 143 m2
The computer graphics room has 16 computers with the full Adobe suite installed. Other creative software is also available, such as Rhinoceros 3D and AutoCAD. The room also has an A3 scanner and an A4/A3 copier. The computers are accessed from a personal access and storage account provided on arrival at the school.
Experimentation spaces:
The experimental spaces allow for research or plastic or design practice that complements the school's workshops.
CCE Lab
• Responsible: Serge Payen
• Educational assistance technician: Arnaud Borde
• Surface area: 93 m²
The CCE (Ceramics as Experiment) research laboratory is a space for innovation and free experimentation at the intersection of digital worlds and traditional techniques, equipped with modeling software and 3D plastic and ceramic printers. In 2025, it acquired a large-format ceramic 3D printer.
Apocope Phygital leather
• Manager: Pierre-Emmanuel Meunier
• Area: 28 m2
The Apocope Phygital Cuir is a space that combines traditional techniques with totally innovative ones in leatherwork, mainly using recycled skins.
Garden area
• Manager: Dominique Mathieu
• Area: 2 ha
The school park is a fertile ground for experimentation in art and design. A teacher is responsible for coordinating projects initiated by the teaching team or proposed by students within the garden, in conjunction with the teaching community, technical services and the School's management.