Villa Arson

La Villa Arson is a public institution under the supervision of the ministère de la Culture, located on the colline Saint-Barthélemy in Nice. Its distinctive feature: bringing together on a single site an école nationale supérieure d'art, a centre d'art contemporain, a specialized library and artist residencies. Students thus develop in direct contact with exhibitions, the production of works and invited artists.

The site itself is a landmark of 1960s-70s architecture: an ensemble of concrete and pebbles organized in terraces and patios around an 18th-century villa.

Formation

The school awards the national diplomas of the art curriculum: the DNA (licence level) after three years, then the DNSEP (master level) after five years. Teaching, focused around the art option, relies on technical workshops (painting, sculpture, volume, wood and metal, ceramics, photography, screen printing and publishing, video, sound, digital) and on individualized guidance for the artistic project.

The pedagogy gives significant place to research, writing and theory, as well as to the spatial staging of work — diplômes and exhibition periods benefiting from the spaces of the centre d'art. International mobility and partnerships with the regional scene round out the course.

Repères

La Villa Arson is associated with the history of contemporary art on the Côte d'Azur and with the legacy of the École de Nice. The artist Noël Dolla taught there; Tatiana Trouvé is among the artists who studied there.

Admission is by entrance competition (concours d'entrée); entry partway through the curriculum is possible on dossier and interview.