Résidence Pro at Villa Medici

In 2023, for its second edition, the Résidence Pro of Villa Medici welcomed 500 high school students from the Grand Est and Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur regions!

In 2024, it will once again welcome high-school students from the Grand Est region, on the theme of “The Habitat of Tomorrow: Living Well Together, Sustainably”.

The Résidence Pro is an ambitious educational programme initiated in 2021 by the French Academy in Rome in order to promote the excellence of French vocational education. Associated each year with several regions, the Résidence Pro takes as its common thread a field of know-how – the wood industry in the first edition – to explore all its technical, social, craft and artistic expressiveness. The educational system is thus connected to the skills developed by the professional courses, honouring the talents of the high school students and the educational teams that compose them.

The Résidence Pro is spread out over an entire school year and is divided into three phases:

From September to May, prepare and build

From the beginning of the school year, accompanied by the project’s educational teams and using a specially designed digital resource platform, each class imagines and documents a collective work inspired by a major heritage work in the city of Rome.

→ In May, travel and experiment

The 300 young people are hosted for a week of immersion in the Italian capital, with the Villa Medici as the central location for a programme of workshops, lectures and practical experiments. They are supervised by mediators and the programme is led by professionals: journalists, art historians, artists, entrepreneurs, experts, etc. Their stay of a few days in an institution that welcomes artists of all disciplines in residence, such as Villa Medici, also encourages them to open up to the artistic and cultural world. This week is placed under the sign of discovery, conviviality and exchange. During their week of exploration in the field, the high school students and apprentices make several visits to Roman sites that they have previously studied during the year, participate in workshops and meetings with professionals, not forgetting the festive moments that punctuate the week.

→ On their return, share

The students commit to sharing their vision, their experience and to becoming passers-by by producing a capsule that composes a collective visual and sound map of Rome, rich in the experiences and know-how of each group and by organising a sharing of their experience in the form of their choice. Screening, tasting, concert, workshop: each class will draw up a programme for a unique festive event to be organised in their school.

© Aerial shot: M3 Studio
© Photos Residence pro: Margherita Nuti et Mary Baldo