Since 2014, through the Skills Academy the Foundation has invited a range of professionals – craftspeople, engineers and designers – to undertake a collective exploration of a universal material that promotes cross-disciplinary knowledge and brings together innovation, experimentation, and sustainability.

Following on from wood, earth, metal, textiles, glass, stone and paper, the eighth edition of the Skills Academy will be dedicated to leather. A universal material both by virtue of its usage, which stretches back to the first civilisations, and its presence in multiple cultures across the world. Leather can indeed be found across a broad range of materials and objects, from parchment to bookbindings and from clothing to furniture, and is worked using a variety of skills, many of which date back centuries. The world of leather opens onto a multiplicity of techniques, symbolisms and prospective questions that will be at the centre of the Skills Academy. The pedagogical direction of this edition will be overseen by designer François Azambourg, who is renowned for his experimental and poetic approach to design.

Over the course of the first semester of 2027, some twenty Academy participants will take part in a series of talks and roundtable discussions that will explore the historical, technical, symbolic and ecological aspects of leather. Weekend visits will meanwhile allow them to discover first-hand the contexts in which leather is produced, transformed and conserved. Finally, in the second semester of the year, an extended workshop will offer them an opportunity to pool and to put into practice their respective skills along with the knowledge acquired in the previous semester as part of a collaborative project directed by François Azambourg.