Furniture speciality

The workshop houses classic pieces of furniture (chests of drawers, cabinets, tables, desks, chairs, etc.), as well as a wide variety of other objects assembled from wood: musical instruments, models, tableware, decorative, technical or ethnographic objects.

The furniture workshop is supervised by Céline Girault and Benoît Jenn.

Céline Girault is in charge of the speciality, and teaches and coordinates courses in furniture conservation-restoration. She works as a freelance heritage conservator-restorer for museums and public authorities.

Benoit Jenn assists Céline Girault in this teaching. A heritage conservator-restorer, he is in charge of the furniture restoration workshop at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Work in workshop

Conservation-restoration is taught primarily through observation and description exercises (condition assessment), followed by interpretation (diagnosis, prognosis) and then by the application of treatments to objects and documents entrusted to the department by public institutions.

Students thus work in a professional context in their relationship with the institution and the person responsible for the work.

Prior study of the works, the context in which they were produced, their significance and their material history is an important part of this specialism. This essential stage places the heritage value of the works at the heart of their conservation-restoration treatment. It also makes it possible to adapt treatment protocols to the new and diversified objectives of the conservation of movable heritage.

Bonnet, Magali, "Rapport d'étude et d'intervention, Modèle réduit de maison japonaise"

Gantier, Gaëlle, "Rapport d'étude et de traitement. Chambre touriste pliante format 17 X 17 cm [Inp 2014-404]"

From left to right:

Bonnet, Magali, "Rapport d'étude et d'intervention, Modèle réduit de maison japonaise", Médiathèque numérique de l'Inp, https://mediatheque-numerique.inp.fr/documentation-oeuvres/rapports-restauration/rapport-detude-dintervention-modele-reduit-maison-japonaise

Gantier, Gaëlle, "Rapport d'étude et de traitement. Chambre touriste pliante format 17 X 17 cm [Inp 2014-404]", Médiathèque numérique de l'Inp, https://mediatheque-numerique.inp.fr/documentation-oeuvres/rapports-restauration/rapport-detude-traitement-chambre-touriste-pliante-format-17-x-17-cm-inp-2014-404

Internships and field-schools

During their 3rd year, student conservators-restorers have a 3-month internship in France at a public institution, a regional or local studio, a service with national competence or with an independent restorer. In their 4th year, they add to their professional experience with a 22-week practical internship in an institutional or private restoration studio abroad.

This is an opportunity for them to put their knowledge into practice, to acquire new skills and build a professional network while discovering other methods and considerations.

At the same time, the students attend field-schools.

From their first year of training, students in conservation-restoration participate in preventive conservation projects. Over the next four years, they interact in field-schools in France and abroad thus giving them a first hands-on experience under the supervision of the coordinators of each of the specialties.

This unique pedagogical approach received the EU Cultural Heritage Prize / Europa Nostra Award in 2018.

Since 1991, the Institut national du patrimoine has held 233 field schools in France and abroad, at major institutions such as the Louvre, the Sorbonne and the Petit Palais, as well as in the provinces, such as in Lourdes, Dijon and Strasbourg, and outside France, in the Lebanon, Italy, Senegal, Albania, India and China.

Master's thesis

The fifth year is the degree year, during which the student is placed in a professional situation and manages a conservation-restoration project independently under the guidance of a thesis director, the head of the workshop, their assistant or an external advisor.