Pavillon Bosio: the school for set design

The Principality’s school of art has made a name for itself among its peers, with its specialism of set design.

Pavillon Bosio, located on the Rocher, began life as a school of drawing and then of fine arts, finally becoming the Monaco Art School (École Supérieure d’Arts Plastiques, ESAP), officially opened by the royal family on 25 July 1969. The building that houses it was constructed on the site of the former Hôtel-Dieu – the hospital opened by Honoré V was moved out of the Monaco-Ville district in the twentieth century. The school’s name is a tribute to François-Joseph Bosio. Born in Monaco in 1768, this neoclassical sculptor and official artist during the First French Empire and the Restoration is known for his busts of Louis XIV and Napoleon, as well as his sculpture of Hercules, which is exhibited at the Louvre.

What makes the programme offered at Pavillon Bosio unique is the multidisciplinary training in art and set design that it offers students. The school runs Research and Creation Workshops (Ateliers de Recherche et de Création, ARCs) in stage design, live art design, exhibition design and ceramics, and also participates in partner projects. Like the Ballets Russes in the early twentieth century, Pavillon Bosio maintains a dialogue between visual arts and performance arts. Monaco Art School has therefore formed partnerships with the Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (NMNM). This has resulted in an annual performance at the Ballets de Monte-Carlo Studios, which brings together a group of student set designers with dancers and choreographers. Through this unique collaboration, students from Monaco Art School have the opportunity to try out a set design on a stage.