The workshop receives sculptures from all periods, made from a wide range of materials: raw clay and terracotta, wood, stone, marble, alabaster, plaster, wax, ivory, contemporary materials, etc. Polychromed works are studied and treated.
The sculpture workshop is run by Jennifer Vatelot and Hélène Dreyfus.
Hélène Dreyfus is responsible for the speciality, and teaches and coordinates the conservation-restoration of sculpture courses. She is a conservator-restorer specialising in stone and wood, and works for France's historic monuments and museums.
Jennifer Vatelot is an assistant for the speciality and is responsible for teaching conservation-restoration of sculpture. She is a conservator-restorer specialising in polychromed and non-polychromed objects in stone, wood, terracotta and ivory for French museums and historic monuments.
Work in workshop
Conservation-restoration is taught firstly through exercises in observation and description (condition reporting), followed by interpretation (diagnosis, prognosis) and then by the implementation of treatments on objects and documents entrusted to the department by public institutions. Students thus work in a professional context, in their relation with the institution and the person responsible for the object.
From left to right:
Anonyme, "Rapport d'étude et d'intervention Tigresse et son petit, Thomas François Cartier (1879-1943)Fonds municipal d'art contemporain (Paris : Val de Marne)", Médiathèque numérique de l'Inp, https://mediatheque-numerique.inp.fr/documentation-oeuvres/rapports-res…
Sansalone, Annabelle, "Rapport d'étude et d'intervention. Moulage en plâtre d’un collier", Médiathèque numérique de l'Inp, https://mediatheque-numerique.inp.fr/documentation-oeuvres/rapports-res…
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.
