Academic & Cultural Partners
Paris College of Art has relationships with many of the greatest cultural institutions in and around Paris through which our students have access to extraordinary library resources, studio facilities, internships, and research opportunities.
Our partnerships unlock exclusive access to some of the city’s most prestigious scholarly institutions, expanding your research horizons and offering inspiring spaces to delve deeper into the subjects that ignite your intellectual curiosity.
“Participating in the PCA and Terra Foundation collaboration was a great opportunity to work with French students and gain experience doing artistic academic research. As an artist, it was interesting to work with students with an art-academic background. The Terra Foundation library itself is a rich collection of artistic references that I wish I knew of sooner. Their books aided me in both this collaboration and my thesis research.”
– Kirby Mealer, MFA in Transdisciplinary New Media, Class of ’23
Sustainable Supplies
La Réserve des Arts
La Réserve des Arts, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainability and artistic innovation through re-use of waste materials, collects re-usable materials from companies and industries within the Paris region and provides these low-cost materials to art-making organizations. PCA partners with La Réserve des Arts to encourage students to work in a sustainable manner and to promote the mission of this important organization whose motto is “Ecological sustainability is a cultural revolution!”
Libraries
Bibliothèque Kandinsky
Originally reserved for museum curators, under specific conditions the library exceptionally allows Paris College of Art students access to the collection, with the academic supervision of Paris College of Art‘s instructors. Learn more about the Paris College of Art partnership with the Bibliothèque Kandinsky.
Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs
Demonstrating the school’s ongoing commitment to research in the fields of art and design, Paris College of Art supports the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs through an annual donation dedicated to acquisitions for the collection. This new partnership gives students and faculty at Paris College of Art privileged access to the library’s resources. Learn more about the Paris College of Art partnership with the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs.
La Gaîté Lyrique
La Gaîté Lyrique is a vibrant center for digital culture and arts offering an eclectic program of music, art, film, workshops, conferences, and performances, as well as a resource center, a videogame center, a media lab and a streaming platform. PCA students can access this resource and use its library holdings including a collection of books on digital culture, 150 periodicals specializing in digital design, catalogues, comic books and graphic novels. Faculty also have access to the facilities to hold classes on the premises.
The American Library of Paris
Paris College of Art students have access to the American Library of Paris that houses a collection of more than 120,000 books, CD-ROM indexes, a periodicals collection of 500 titles (some of which date back to the 19th century) and two digital full-text and bibliographic databases offer access to more than 2,300 periodicals including a wide range of arts and humanities journals.
Research Partners
Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles
The mission of the Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles (CRCV) is to conduct and support research, in particular concerning the 17th and 18th centuries, on the court of Versailles and other European seats of power. This center for multidisciplinary and international exchange encourages new research and supports students and professionals in their projects.
All aspects of the culture of the French court are studied at the CRCV, including the structure and function of curial institutions, the history of ideas, the development of the arts and sciences, the conception of the palace and gardens and rites and ceremony, all fertile fields for the fundamental, comparative and applied research conducted and supported by the center.
The collaboration between the CRCV Paris College of Art allows students to access the research tools of the CRCV and provides guidance and support for their research. Paris College of Art students are eligible to apply for a two-month summer internship at the CRCV.
Université de Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
In 2011, the Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) “Arts – Créations – Théories – Esthétiques” (ACTE) and Paris College of Art joined into a collaboration with the Université of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the semiotics of art and design research division of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) to develop a variety of scientific projects.
Laying the groundwork for this partnership, Bernard Darras (Paris 1) edited the third volume of “Collection” focusing on the connections between art and design and semiotics. On the horizon for the 2011-12 academic year is the Ateliers de la Recherche en Design ARD 7 in Tunis with the participation of the École Supérieure des Sciences et Techniques du Design (ESSTED).
Through this partnership, our students will have access to one of the most prestigious research facilities in social science, art and design in France. Students will have the opportunity to receive guidance and support for the research and development of their theses, as well as, attend seminars and conferences.
Terra Foundation for American Art
The Terra Foundation Library offers a research facility devoted exclusively to the visual arts of the United States from the eighteenth century to 1980, with particular emphasis on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Holdings consist of nearly 9,500 books and catalogues, including rare materials and digital resources.
Every semester, the Liberal Studies & Art History Department selects outstanding PCA undergraduate students across departments and offers them the opportunity to take part in a unique high-level research program on a specific topic related to American Art, based on the Collection of the Terra Foundation.
The program provides the opportunity to work closely with the Terra Library’s wonderful collection of books and have a first major experience within the academic research world. The final workshop and presentation are also an occasion to compare study and research methodologies with peers from French universities in an international and interdisciplinary context.
MakeSense
MakeSense is an international organization bringing together 2,000 social entrepreneurs with 30,000 volunteers from over 100 cities in 70 countries. By putting together volunteers’ skills and ideas, MakeSense’s aim is to help social entrepreneurs create and develop their businesses and solve the most pressing issues faced by society. Paris College of Art joins forces with MakeSense in our one-year Master’s program (MA) in Design for Social Impact that equips citizen designers with the critical thinking (ethics, research methods), practical (design thinking, entrepreneurship, prototyping), and soft (governance, leadership, networking) skills to successfully develop and lead design projects that will bring positive societal changes.
Learning Planet Institute
The Learning Planet Institute explores new ways of learning, teaching, conducting research and mobilizing collective intelligence in life, learning and digital sciences. Situated at the crossroads of research and education, CRI advocates for innovative pedagogy that puts the student at the heart of their own learning experience through projects, research and societal challenges. PCA’s partnership with CRI offers unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research to our Design for Social Impact and Transdisciplinary New Media students.
Institut Suédois
The Institut Suédois promotes Swedish culture and Franco-Swedish relations through multi-disciplinary exhibits and events. Its aim is to serve as a forum for intercultural exchange that fosters openness and mutual understanding. Through a partnership with the Institute, PCA Interior Design students collaborated with students from Beckmans College of Art and Design (Stockholm) to create a new interior design for one of the Institute’s residences, unveiled as part of Paris Design Week.