3 questions for . . . Serge Nicole President, Ateliers d’Art de France

‘“Made in France” is part of the very essence of our artistic professions’. 

As President of the Ateliers d’Art de France since 2006, ceramist Serge Nicole enthusiastically promotes a range of savoir-faire through events for professionals and the general public. His goal: establish a common foundation for the 100% ‘Made in France’ arts.

Fashion professionals know the Ateliers d’Art de France and Reed Expositions France as co-owners of the Maison&Objet trade show, but what are the Ateliers d’Art de France’s other areas of activity?

For almost 150 years we’ve been a professional association that unites all the specialists in the creative fields. Our activities bring together over 6,000 professional artisans, craft workers and arts workshops. Our mission is twofold: to give strong visibility to our creative output, which means economic growth for our ateliers, and to promote the arts and crafts agenda, which means defending and representing professionals. We have always considered action as integral to our mission. That’s why in 1949 we launched our first trade show in Paris, the Ateliers d‘Art. In 1995 we created the SAFI subsidiary with partner Reed Expositions, and the Ateliers d’Art became the Maison&Objet trade show. We also direct the International Heritage Show, held every year at the Carrousel du Louvre. And in 2013 we created and managed the Révélations Fair, the first biennial international event for fine crafts at the Grand Palais.

For a professional group, organizing trade shows is very important. Trade shows put the sector in the spotlight, stimulate creativity and help strengthen professional networks. Additionally, and still in line with our constant efforts to promote our professions, we started the Ateliers d’Art de France Foundation and launched the International Film Festival on Crafts in Montpellier. All these events increase our visibility and strengthen our second mission: to defend and represent the artistic trades in their true definition as intrinsically creative professions.

How do you support this much discussed campaign for the artistic trades?

Today we’re in a paradoxical situation. The general public recognizes and respects the artistic professions, but neither legislation nor administrations considers them as a separate economic sector. Each craft category has an independent association (Ed. Serge Nicole is a ceramist), but the issues for every artistic profession are the same. Yet currently, our tax, social and legal responsibilities are different. Here’s an example: a few years ago I trained a young women as a ceramist. Today we share the same stand at Maison&Objet, but we don’t pay the same VAT because she’s registered as an artist/author, and I’m part of the Chamber of Trades. This situation makes collaborations complicated and threatens our long-term security because it creates an extremely unfair playing field. Without a common base it’s difficult to guarantee training and a future for the next generation.

In order to be heard, we created an in-house agency to gather statistics on the sector and alert public authorities to our situation. We also set up the National Union for Artisanal trades to address these problems and 13 different artisanal trade unions are already members. Our first victory at the Permanent Assembly of the Chamber of Artisanal Trades concerned the future Pinel law (by the Ministry of Artisanal Trades) for a 100th Amendment which defines and establishes a specific ‘artistic profession’ section within the National Repertory of Trades.

It’s been almost 150 years since your professional organisation began fighting to defend the artistic professions. What do you think about today’s ‘Made in France’ discussions?

First of all, we believe that ‘Made in France’ is part of our professions’ identity. But we go even further than the current ‘Made in France’ definition, because we are hands-on craftspeople and artists and we create our work in our very own workrooms.

As far as the popularity of the ‘Made in France’ concept with consumers, we view it as an overall trend that expresses the almost metaphysical need to know where things come from. We see it every day in our ateliers when we welcome visitors. Today’s generation of consumers is looking for honour in manufacturing. Since we work locally, our products satisfy this public’s concerns. That’s why we created the specific ‘Ateliers d’Art France Exclusif’ label. It’s a guarantee for consumers that the artist has made every part of the finished product himself and in his atelier.

We’re very happy about the ‘Made in France’ movement. But from our point of view, it expresses a much deeper longing of consumers. And since today’s public has these expectations, we can carry on fighting and providing the guarantee of provenance for the products we create. The truth is that these discussions are a ‘virtuous circle’. We work to make our professions known to the public; consumers want authentic products; and the ‘Made in France’ movement increases our visibility. This renown helps us continue to strive to obtain the legal status of a separate economic category. This common foundation will help us win even more visibility for our professions, which means we can attract young people and assure the future of our savoir-faire.