Prix Avenir Métiers d’Art
In November 2024, Villa Noailles hosted the jury and regional ceremony for the Prix Avenir Métiers d’Art for the South of France region. With the support of the Institut pour les Savoir-Faire Français, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Chamber of Trades and Crafts organised the regional jury for the award. Nineteen young students in applied arts training presented pieces created as part of their education, in fields such as cabinetmaking, jewellery, sculpture, artistic ironwork, glassmaking, and furniture upholstery. Some of their works are on display this summer.
Art and craft professions are as diverse as the training courses that lead to them. These professions, like the establishments and instructors who teach them, suffer from a lack of visibility. As a result, many courses are struggling to attract new learners.
The Institut pour les Savoir-Faire Français, committed to its mission of preserving and developing the skills of excellence, is actively involved in ensuring the survival of these invaluable professions, the true pillars of the French art of living. By putting its expertise at the service of teaching institutes, trainers and operators throughout France, it is helping to raise the profile and appeal of these courses, particularly among young people and their parents.
Institute is working to make it attractive to new generations. It strives to make the training on offer - both initial and continuing - more easily understandable, and to highlight successful career paths, by promoting training establishments and raising their profile in the regions.
The Prix Avenir Métiers d’Art, created in 2002 by the Institute, embodies this approach by rewarding young talent in art and craft training courses. Thanks to their contagious passion and talent, the regional and national winners become ambassadors for their skills, helping to present their training courses as courses of excellence, while supporting the transmission of these professions to future generations.
The aim of the Prize is to
- Highlight young talent and the future of the art professions.
- Support these future professionals in the success of their career plans.
- Highlight the training organisations and the teachers and trainers who work on a daily basis to pass on these skills.
- Highlight the specific features of the training on offer in each region and sector.
The Prix Avenir Métiers d’Art is associated with the values of quality, high standards and creativity. The winning entries therefore meet rigorous assessment criteria. Depending on their level of training, candidates are judged not only on their technical mastery and expertise, but also on the aesthetic, creative and innovative aspects of their work.
The Institut pour les Savoir-Faire Français is coordinating the organisation of the regional juries and raising awareness among training establishments throughout France, in conjunction with its regional correspondents. The competition, aimed at young people under the age of 26, is divided into three categories, corresponding to three distinct levels of training:
3 (CAP), 4 (BAC Pro, Brevet des Métiers d’Art), 5/6 (BAC +2/3, BTS, Diplôme des Métiers d’Art, Diplôme National des Métiers d’Art et du Design).
The Prize takes place in 2 stages:
Regional juries (for each level, 3, 4 and 5/6) are organised, in coordination with the Institute, by the Rectorats, the Chambres de Métiers et de l’Artisanat, and the Regions, throughout France.
National juries then put the 1st regional prizes at each level up for grabs, and these are organised in Paris by the Institut.
To enter, candidates must present a piece created during the final year of their training.
This year’s prize is supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Rémy Cointreau Foundation and Banque Populaire.