The core programme

The ‘ Professional ethics’ module is coordinated by the Department of Studies. Its aim is to make student curators aware of their responsibilities as senior civil servants in charge of public heritage policy.

It aims to give them the means to adopt appropriate behaviour when faced with concrete situations involving the fundamental values of public service. In order not to dissociate the ethics of curators from those of civil servants, but rather to show the link that unites these two fields, this module alternates theoretical lessons with practical cases presented by curators who hold or have held management positions and senior civil servants.

The ‘Cultural Heritage Law’ module is coordinated by Vincent Négri. Its aim is to provide curatorial students with knowledge of the administrative, institutional and legal environment in which they will be carrying out their duties, so that they are able to fulfil their administrative responsibilities.

The ‘Public Management’ course, coordinated by François Monteagle, provides curatorial students with knowledge of programming procedures, the implementation of public spending and its evaluation, in the context of the administrative and financial responsibilities that will be theirs. It helps them to understand how to prepare a draft annual budget (for the State, a local authority or a public institution), how to put together the financial arrangements for specific operations and, more generally, how to make decisions in all their financial and accounting aspects.

This course, coordinated by Catherine Dupraz, aims to provide a precise understanding of the essential concepts of the civil service and the rights and obligations inherent in it. It describes the main issues currently facing the French civil service, which future curators will necessarily be involved in.

Through case studies, students will learn to master the principles and methods of team leadership, work organisation and professional relations.

This course favours active teaching based on practical exercises and real-life situations. The aim is to train student curators in the issues and techniques of public management, and to prepare them to take on the responsibilities and senior management functions inherent in the senior civil service.

This module, coordinated by Matthieu Gilles, Anne-Sylvie Stern Riffé and Nicosia Grazia, provides common teaching for all students, focusing on preventive conservation and the general conservation environment.

Additional teaching, given by speciality, aims to take better account of the specific nature of the supports, the general principles of restoration and their application to different types of heritage objects. 

The student heritage conservators work together with the student heritage restorers from the Inp on a project involving collections in the Paris region and practical exercises in condition assessment.

The ‘Audiences and Cultural Heritage’ module, coordinated by Alexandre Arnaud, Brigitte Guigueno and Sophie Onimus-Carrias, is structured around practical encounters that enable student curators to acquire the knowledge they need to design and run an exhibition or cultural heritage enhancement project, as well as to design its editorial or digital versions for public outreach.

Supervised by exhibition, publishing and multimedia professionals, these courses enable student curators, future exhibition curators or future heritage project managers to discover the professional world of museography specialists, publishers, graphic designers and printers, webmasters and web designers.

This teaching module, coordinated by Valérie Brisard and Stéphane Tissier, prepares student curators, who may at some point in their careers be faced with problems relating to work to be carried out on a building, for their future responsibilities as project managers. It aims to give them the means to interact with the people involved in planning and construction, particularly the project manager.

The module is largely based on the critical and dynamic study of construction or renovation sites, supplemented by a solid theoretical foundation.

In order to improve their fluency in an international context, students benefit from modern language courses and a week of intensive courses in the language spoken at the placement, with, depending on the case and feasibility, the possibility of personalised training, adapted to the needs of each student.

Through theoretical reviews and case studies, the seminar aims to make curatorial students aware of their responsibilities in relation to cultural property looted during the 1933-1945 period and, more broadly, in relation to acquisitions.

This seminar alternates theory, practical exercises and role-playing. Its aim is to train student curators in the issues and techniques of public communication, and to equip them with the tools they need to speak effectively and efficiently in public. It also aims to prepare student curators to maintain professional relations with the media.

As part of their job, future heritage curators will be required to produce information and documents that reflect their activity. Some of these documents are particularly crucial to the smooth running of the departments, whether they be management files or professional documentation: files on works of art, excavation reports, monument files, etc.

The aim of this course is to explain the concept of archive documents to curatorial students (in all specialisms), and to use recommendations, concrete examples and practical exercises to make them aware of the need to properly manage documents that are vital to the smooth running of their departments.

Coordinated by the Institut national du service public (INSP), these modules have been designed and rolled out as part of the reform of senior civil service management (decree of 28 November 2023 on the common core of training for senior civil service managers). Their aim is to develop a common culture among students at civil service schools preparing for senior management positions.

The programme is built around three objectives: to disseminate a common culture within the senior civil service; to decompartmentalise civil service school courses, as well as the administrations of all civil services and administrative cultures; and to provide a time for exchanges and meetings between students from different civil service schools, future senior managers.

Students work on a collections project with student restorers from the Inp and student curators from the Ecole du Louvre. A collections worksite is an exceptional operation for an institution, enabling a group of objects to be treated ‘en masse’ for a specific purpose (transfer of collections, creation of new reserves, museum renovation, etc.). Each project is unique, depending on the context of the institution and the needs of the collections.

For the past two years, curatorial trainees have also been offered the opportunity to work abroad on consultancy and expertise projects. 

As part of the module devoted to audiences, during the 18 months of their training, student curators are required to run an artistic and cultural education project aimed at audiences who are far removed from culture or who have fewer opportunities. They may work with associations in the social field or with schools. 

A study day is organised each year by all the student curators in a given year. By organising this annual scientific event, the Institut wishes to highlight the ability of its student curators to work together to produce a scientific reflection and to take on the management of a complex project.

It takes place two months after the start of the course, in a regional directorate of cultural affairs or in the cultural department of a local authority. This immersion in a cultural administration should enable the trainee to acquire an overview of the objectives and conditions for developing cultural policy in the region, and to discover the public service and how it operates.

This final heritage internship takes place in an establishment or department corresponding to a heritage speciality or sector other than that of the student curator. This is a short, introductory placement designed to give the student a better understanding of the tasks and working methods of heritage professionals from a different field, and ultimately to encourage collaboration between the various heritage departments.