Here are some key figures of the success of this school, still unique of its kind today.

 

5 years. Originally, the École des Arts Joailliers was called the Van Cleef & Arpels School because the eponymous house opened it to initiate the general public to jewelry and watchmaking. This change of name has allowed it to distance itself from its famous patron and establish its own legitimacy.

 

20 subjects covered in dozens of courses. From the art of enameling to diamonds, to the tastes of Marie Antoinette, Art Nouveau, gemology, watchmaking and jewelry, each subject revealed and explained, and experienced through practical workshops. This year begins with two new themes, the gouache and the engagement ring (a highly strategic piece for the jewelry business), the former seen through its place in art history, the latter through its know-how and gemology. To be followed with love.

 

30 instructors. Counting gemologists, researchers, watchmakers, lacquerers, gouache painters and historians, along with the very welcoming and passionate Gislain Aucremanne and Inezita Gay, both of whom feature in most of the films made by the School.

 

16,000 students from 35 countries. “The number of students has increased as much over the last 12 months as had in the School’s first 4 years,” proudly states the President, Marie Vallanet. On the other hand, it is impossible to define a typical profile; they are customers, jewelry professionals, enthusiasts, and so on. The youngest is 16 years old and the oldest is 85. Not to mention children who, from 5 years old, can attend workshops specially created for them.

 

5 destinations. Several times a year, the School becomes nomadic and transports instructors, workbenches, gems and tools abroad. After New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo, in 2017 it will set up shop for a few weeks in Dubai from November 7^th to 25^th 2017, and then move on to London.

 

200 euros the course. The School has revised its prices very advantageously; aware that the original price of 600 euros the course was too high to allow access to a wide number of people.

 

3 books and 2 exhibitions. Based on the collection in the Jewelry Gallery of Paris’s Museum of Decorative Arts, the first was released at the end of 2016 and is devoted to flora, while the remaining two to appear soon, focus on fauna and the human figure. The School is also the patron of the exhibition on decorative arts in the 20^th century at Paris’s Museum of Modern Art, starting March 22^nd 2017, and it will give a lecture at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum on the occasion of the exhibition on Italian jewelry of the 20^th century, currently on show until March 20^th 2017.

 

1 research paper on Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. Apart from his writings, there is little information on this major figure in the history of the diamond. Marie Vallanet, who personally admires this forefather of all traders in precious stones, puts it to rights: the School is financing this research done at the University of Rennes II and has had two sets of replicas made of the 20 most beautiful diamonds he brought back for Louis XIV. One set will serve as a support for courses; the other will be exhibited at the Mineralogy Gallery at the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

 

January 23^rd. The School inaugurates a new addition to its activities with an exhibition of contemporary jewelry. The first guest is Harumi Klossowska de Rola whose works will be on show from January 23^rd 2017.