The Institut national du patrimoine aims to become a major international player in the field of training, research, protection, and conservation-restoration of heritage. Drawing on solid experience in providing training, a well-established reputation and a network of public, charity, and private partners around the world, it aims to encourage exchanges between professionals, to help adapt skills to current challenges in the field, and to integrate a diversity of heritages in order to raise awareness, support, and form the structures and train professionals of tomorrow throughout the world.
The pursuit of this aim takes the form of cooperation, expertise and training projects, increased participation by the Institute in exchange and reflection programmes on heritage professions in Europe, hosting international students and professionals, and sending students on internships and field-school projects abroad.
Les missions de coopération, d’expertise et de formation
Depuis 2018, la coopération internationale fait partie des missions statutaires de l’Institut et il conforte progressivement sa position d’opérateur au service de la diplomatie culturelle française à travers ses activités pédagogiques, ses missions d’ingénierie, et ses missions de formation des professionnels du patrimoine, en partenariat étroit avec le ministère de la culture et dans une collaboration croissante avec le ministère de l’Europe et des affaires étrangères.
Depuis 2021, une cinquantaine d’actions internationales sont menées chaque année et notamment dans des pays instables ou en zones de conflit, grâce au soutien de l’ALIPH (l’Alliance internationale pour la protection du patrimoine dans les zones en conflit).
Strengthening international exchanges for heritage professions
The Institute actively participates in several European exchange programmes on the definition of heritage professions, training programmes, regulations, and working conditions of heritage professionals. For example, it took part in European-level discussions organised by Voices of Culture in 2020 and 2021 and led workshops on heritage professions as part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (FPEU) in the first half of 2022.
Hosting international students and professionals
Every year, students and professionals can apply to join all or part of the training programme for heritage curators, specialising in archives, archaeology, museums, historical monuments, and technical, scientific and natural heritage, or all or part of the training programme for conservator-restorers, especially for semesters of study under the Erasmus+ exchange programme, specialising in earthenware and glassware, graphic arts and the book, textile arts, furniture, painting, photography and digital images, and sculpture. The ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) adopted for the training of restorers facilitates academic recognition of periods of study completed at the Institute.
Nearly 200 international students and professionals have already been hosted.
Field-schools and Internships abroad
Finally, an international approach is encouraged within the two academic departments.
As part of their training, our students - curators and conservator-restorers - carry out expert appraisal missions, study collections and complete conservation-restoration missions abroad in the context of field-schools, supervised by the Institute's teaching teams and under the scientific guidance of the host institutions.
They are also hosted for a practical placement of 7 weeks for curatorial students and 6 months for conservator-restorer students, within a network of over a hundred institutions and public or private businesses in Europe and around the world.
