Thomas Gauvillé

Can you tell us about your background?

After earning my baccalaureate in 2004, I entered the École du Louvre for two years, during which I was able to specialize in French painting and heraldry. The vagaries of life meant I had to leave Paris prematurely and change paths. I then undertook an apprenticeship in violin making in Toulouse and then in England, which trained me not only in instrument making itself but also in the appraisal of antique stringed instruments and bow making.

Holding a degree in the applied arts, I then joined IESA arts&culture, from which I graduated in 2014.

What is your role at IESA?

Immediately after earning my degree, I began working at IESA arts&culture, where I taught heraldry, history and art history. Today, in addition to teaching, I am in charge of the internship department for the Art Market. My role is to link companies and the school’s students. To do this, we must maintain and expand the network of galleries, auction houses, appraisal firms, fairs and trade shows in order to offer students a varied range of internships.

Going into the field, meeting professionals and offering them a lasting partnership by showing them the dynamism and effectiveness of the students and their passion for art and its market. It is always pleasant, and rewarding for the department, to come across, at a booth or an opening, former students of the international school of cultural professions and the art market who have managed to make themselves indispensable to their organization and have thus been able to turn their internships into stable jobs.

So that this continues over the years, the internship department supports students by offering them numerous varied opportunities and by providing advice or warnings so that the future players in the market learn under good conditions and in organizations offering quality training.

We also care about empowering students, and the aim is to make sure they apply for a position on their own while ensuring that their internship goes smoothly in real time.

We also offer a growing number of opportunities at one-off events of which the school is a partner and which provide, over a short period of time, a global and effective view of how a fair, a trade show or an exhibition works.

What are the emblematic partnerships of IESA arts&culture? Are new synergies planned?

The internship department for the Art Market works to build partnerships with the largest players in today’s market. We have been working for years now with fairs as prestigious as Art Paris Art Fair, Paris Photo, Asia Now, AKAA, Drawing Now or DDessins, which always know how to train students in the best and most effective way.

However, because of my training and my taste, I want to rebalance the forces between an offering too often focused on contemporary art and old master and modern arts that are sometimes set aside, or artistic disciplines too often neglected. Creating partnerships with renowned old master art fairs such as the Salon du Dessin or the Biennale de Paris therefore seems essential to me.

Moreover, being from the provinces myself, I think we need to open up more to organizations all across France. The farthest corners of the country are full of cultural initiatives, already well established or emerging, that need to be encouraged. I am thinking in particular of the many regional hubs such as, for example, the Centre d’art et photographie de Lectoure, the Synagogue de Delme or the brand-new art and design center La Cuisine near Montauban.

Finally, it is also essential to open up to foreign countries, which is why we will soon be visiting the major European fairs such as TEFAF Maastricht, BRAFA in Brussels, Art Basel in Basel, Masterpiece or the Frieze Art Fair in London in order to propose partnerships within the various exhibition curatorships.