when crafts become “modern” again

In the prestigious workshops of the Mobilier national, restorers work on old carpets. Julienne Tsang is the deputy head of the service. “Here, it’s a Louis XV carpet. We can clearly see that there was an old gap, let’s say a hole, and that the velvet has disappeared”, she shows us. Restoration of this rug will take two weeks, but restorations of other pieces can take years. To work on this type of carpet, it takes four years of training and a competition that lasts five months.

So to support the 281 trades recognized as crafts, the Ministers of Culture and Crafts, Rima Abdul Malak and Olivia Grégoire announced on Tuesday May 30 a plan with an envelope of 340 million euros. Maridié, who has 25 years in the business, is however not worried. For him, the succession is assured. “There are a lot of young people in traininghe rejoices. There will be a suite of skilled and passionate elements.”

A new breath after years of scarcity

A new lease of life for crafts after years of scarcity, explains Yann Grienenberger, director of the Center international d’art verrier in Meisenthal, Moselle. “For many years, the crafts of the hand have been devalued. We have realized in recent years that there is a real appetite among the younger generations to get back to these trades. For example, in our area, in the glass trades , we no longer assimilate these professions to an ancient profession, which only does restoration, but to a real modern profession.

“This job allows you to meet designers from all over the world, visual artists, who allow glass to tell new stories, to play a new score of objects.”

Yann Grienenberger, director of the International Center for Glass Art in Meisenthal

at franceinfo

But to make these professions known, you have to talk about them from an early age, insists Gabrielle Légeret. “I grew up in the countryside and I really saw, both farmers, but also craftsmen, close for lack of vocations, for lack of buyers. Because in fact, in college, nobody spoke to us about these professions”, she explains. Today, with her association De l’or dans les mains, she intervenes in colleges precisely to introduce manual trades. “For example, we will have a carpenter who will come and have a wooden nest box made with the young people and you have each young person who leaves with his nest box. And there, in fact, something extraordinary happens because the young discovers that he has creative power with his hands. And there, you give him confidence in himself and that’s magic.”

Among the measures of the government plan to support the sector, 1,000 internships will be offered to ninth-grade students on the monstagedetroisième.fr platform.