Introduction
The isdaT — Toulouse Higher Institute of Arts and Design is a public higher education institution dedicated to training artists and creators in the fields of arts, design, graphic design, music, and dance.
Each specialty offers specific courses that combine artistic practice, theoretical reflection, collective experimentation, and cultural context. The goal is to impart solid skills, critical thinking, and the ability to take action in the artistic, educational, and professional worlds. Students are supported in building their personal paths and looking to the future with autonomy and commitment.
Located in the heart of Toulouse, isdaT affirms its roots in the artistic and cultural life of the city. By increasing its collaborations with cultural institutions, creative venues, and local initiatives, it opens its doors to the city and encourages students to engage with the real world, interact with audiences, and actively participate in contemporary cultural life.
The isdaT supports vibrant creativity that is attentive to the challenges of our time and focused on experimentation. The school thus positions itself as a place of research, transmission, and debate where ideas circulate and practices are constantly renewed.
In addition, isdaT offers public courses accessible to all ages, children, teenagers, and adults, to introduce or deepen their practice in the visual arts. This commitment to greater openness to all audiences is part of a desire to share artistic knowledge and practices with all the inhabitants of the region.
While strongly rooted in Toulouse, isdaT is developing a large network of partnerships in France and internationally. This dynamic allows students to benefit from numerous opportunities for mobility, residencies, exchanges, and collaborations abroad, thus enriching their training and their openness to the world.
The isdaT thus forms a community of artists, creators, and professionals in the making, capable of engaging with contemporary issues, contributing to developments in the artistic field, and building meaningful trajectories, both here and elsewhere.
Our missions
- Organization of higher artistic studies up to doctorate level and the issuing of national diplomas;
- Implementation of research projects (conferences, study days, seminars, international partnerships, publications);
- Both internal and external production and distribution (exhibitions, shows, concerts, etc.) in partnership with numerous artistic and cultural venues;
- International relations (student and teacher mobility, international partnerships);
- Professional integration of graduates.
Research
Research at isdaT is based on a critical approach that questions eminently political and social issues through creation. In this way, social and economic organization is questioned and revisited, particularly with regard to ecology, organization of production and consumption, as well as upheaval in work organization. The topic of gender is an opportunity for the isdaT to use creation as a means of questioning the way in which our society is “gendered”, to dismantle the false evidence. Our critical approach, both theoretical and practical, has also been deployed according to a deliberately multidisciplinary method.
The research council consists of a representative of each research program. It collegially validates the directions and developments of research within the institution, as well as supports the research of 3 open programs on prevailing issues in the fields of art, design and graphic design and based on prospective plastic and theoretical work. Their common organization into a research unit within the isdaT makes it possible to support teachers, students and young graduates in their research and experimentation needs, by bringing together researchers and professionals from outside the institution, while sharing research, production and dissemination resources.
History of the isdaT
As part of the reform of French art schools, the isdaT – institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulouse was created in 2011. As an Établissement public de coopération culturelle (EPCC – Public Institution for Cultural Cooperation), it brings together two schools: the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Centre d’Études Supérieures Musique et Danse de Toulouse. The creation of the isdaT has fostered a cross-disciplinary identity by combining projects in art, design, graphic design, music and dance as part of the curriculum.
History of the École des Beaux-Arts
The origin of the École des Beaux-arts (School of Fine Arts) dates back to the 17th century, when in 1680, the city of Toulouse opened a public school of drawing and painting at the Capitol. In 1750, the School was established as the Académie Royale de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture (Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) in letters patent signed by Louis XV.
In the 19th century, it became the École des Beaux-Arts et des Sciences Industrielles (School of Fine Arts and Industrial Sciences). In 1806, the School relocated to the Musée des Augustins . In 1895, it once again moved to the buildings of the former tobacco factory, quai de la Daurade.
It was during this time that the current facade of the Palais des Arts was built. It was based on the plans of Pierre Esquié, a former student of the School and recipient of the Grand Prix de Rome for architecture. Today, the Palais houses the library and the old collection / media platform upstairs. On the ground floor, a large exhibition room is dedicated to the work of students and the planning of major exhibitions.
History of the Centre d’Études Supérieures Musique et Danse
In 1993, the Centre d’Études Supérieures Musique et Danse (CESMD – Centre for Advanced Studies in Music and Dance) was founded by the State, the City of Toulouse and the Toulouse – Jean Jaurès University, under the direction of Marc Bleuse.
According to the recommendations of the State, the CESMD and the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Toulouse have been united in the form of an Établissement Public de Coopération Culturelle (EPCC), known as the institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulouse (isdaT).
