ECOLE NATIONALE SUPERIEURE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE LYON

L'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon (ENSBA Lyon) is a public institution of higher artistic education under the supervision of the ministère de la Culture. Its history goes back to the Lyon drawing schools created in the 18th century, long linked to the silk industry and the trades of the Fabrique, before the school became a place of training in contemporary creation.

It is located on the site of the Subsistances, a former convent then barracks on the banks of the Saône, which it shares with a creation laboratory dedicated to the performing arts — a cohabitation that fosters transdisciplinary projects and encounters with the local artistic scene.

Programs. The school awards the Diplôme national d'art (DNA, bac+3) then the Diplôme national supérieur d'expression plastique (DNSEP, bac+5, conferring the grade of master), in art and in design. Admission is by entrance competition (application file and interview), with possibilities of entry mid-course through an equivalence committee.

Strengths. Teaching through studios and individualized guidance of the personal project, varied practices (painting, drawing, sculpture, volume, photography, video, sound, installation, publishing, design), supervised technical workshops, an important place given to research, to workshops, to study trips and to international mobility. Graduates move toward creation, production and mediation, the professions of design, image and publishing, or continue into post-diploma studies and doctorates in art.

Among the figures who passed through the Lyon school is the architect Tony Garnier.