Since 2011, the Foundation has offered dedicated support to the “Petits Dégourdis de Sèvres”, an educational programme that seeks to introduce children to the art of ceramics. Bringing together the transmission of exceptional skills with an initiation into contemporary creativity, this programme welcomes schoolchildren from the Hauts-de-Seine department, including disabled pupils. The programme is conducted in close collaboration with the Hauts-de-Seine schools inspectorate.

This year, almost three hundred schoolchildren have been invited to discover ceramic skills and techniques before trying their hand themselves, creating work for display in a final group exhibition. After visiting the workshops and the national collections of the Cité de la Céramique and the Saint-Cloud national park, the “Petits Dégourdis” can experiment and create freely, unencumbered by the demand for perfection traditionally associated with porcelain manufacture, and regardless of their skill level. The aim is, above all, to help school pupils understand the processes of ceramic creation, from raw materials through to finished pieces. 

A guest artist working at Sèvres acts as a mediator for the programme each year, backed by an educational team. Children have worked alongside creators from a range of different backgrounds, with designers Christian Biecher, Pernelle Poyet and Arthur Hoffner, designer and scenographer Vincent Dupont-Rougier, photographer Sophie Zénon and fashion designer Gustavo Lins contributing to the programme in recent years. For the 2019-2020 school year, Murielle Joubert, a former craftswoman at the Manufacture de Sèvres, takes on the role of educational director of the workshops.

Together with the Manufacto, the Skills Factory programme, the Foundation’s support for “Petits Dégourdis” attests to its commitment to initiatives that promote the transmission of artisan skills.