With its successful experience and recognition by the Chinese government in the field of higher education, KEDGE has been asked by CAFA, the Beijing School of Fine Arts, one of the most renowned art schools in the world, to create a new Sino-French Institute (IFC) in the innovative field of Arts and Design Management. The primary objective of this Institute is to train Chinese art students in management skills for a booming Chinese cultural market. Ultimately, the ambition is to make this IFC a unique HUB combining teaching, research and cross-disciplinary projects to develop co-operation between France/Europe and China/Asia.
A Sino-French Institute in Arts & Design Management
After signing a cooperation agreement on 29 January 2015, in the presence of the French Prime Minister and the Chinese Prime Minister, KEDGE and CAFA officially opened the IFC in October 2020 on the new Pudong campus in Shanghai, specifically built for this training. This year, the IFC welcomes 150 Chinese students from CAFA (300 as of next year) for a 5-year programme (first 2 years in China, 3rd year in France, 4th year in China and optional 5th year in France) with a double Chinese and French Bachelor's degree and the possibility of a Master's degree in Management (Grande Ecole Programme) and an MSc in Arts and Creative Industries Management.
The expertise of KEDGE's "Creative Industries Culture" research centre at the heart of the IFC arts and design
KEDGE's Creative Industries Culture research centre aims to produce and disseminate knowledge on the management of the arts, culture and creative industries.
The field includes visual arts, heritage, performing arts, cultural industries, design, taste industries such as fashion or luxury goods, entertainment and leisure industries including creative tourism, creation and creativity in general. The team comprises 15 permanent professors and 10 researchers and associate professors.
In an institutionalist trend, the research centre is focused in the social inclusion of actors in production processes and markets, the nature of creative and cultural goods and the conditions of their production, and the specific behaviour of creative and cultural organisations in order to better help them in their management.
The centre carries out research work for many partners: Europe, the Ministry of Culture and Communication, Regions, cities, cultural institutions, companies. The work of the research centre is published in academic and professional journals.
Thanks to this expertise, KEDGE can offer an innovative programme, unique in the world, for the Institute of Arts Management and Design, by delivering all the management courses applied to the field, and by cooperating with CAFA on its own expertise (art history, art theory, applied arts and design) and in partnership with prestigious French cultural and creative organisations.
In total, for the French part, in the Bachelor and Master in Management delivered by KEDGE, 37 professors will deliver 52 courses concerning the management of visual arts, heritage, museums, cultural industries, design and creativity in general.
The Creative Industries Culture research centre will associate many French artistic and cultural partner institutions to the programme, including the GUIMET National Museum of Asian Arts, while CAFA will associate the Chinese art and design world. This strong professional immersion of the students will complete the curriculum to meet the programme's central objective of training future managers of art, design and culture in China.
In addition, a comparative research programme on Sino-French art and design management will be launched in order to make the Sino-French Institute a platform for the production of specialised knowledge in the field.
