Jewelled insights

Of course there’s a backstory to everything, but that’s especially true for the most intricate, elaborate, finely worked examples of art, design and craft that combine to produce luxury jewellery. The levels of skill, expertise and commitment at each stage of the production process are extraordinary, and it can be a privilege to glimpse inside this world. L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts provides much more than a glimpse.

The French luxury jewellery company Van Cleef & Arpels actually established the school over a decade ago. The stated aim is to share the culture of jewellery – especially haute couture jewellery – with the world, though the location of its four campuses (Dubai, Shanghai and two in Paris) suggests that marketing considerations played some part.

“We aim to provide access to the world of jewellery to the widest audience possible,” said Nicholas Bos, CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels’ parent, Richemont Group, Nicolas Bos, in an interview. “Our world shouldn’t intimidate or turn anyone away.”

And you could see why the art of Van Cleef & Arpels in particular might seem intimidating. The company is known for elaborately designed and exquisitely crafted pieces that call on extremes both of art and technique. As a result it has built a repertoire of skills that has led the house to be acknowledged as a leading repository of theoretical and practical knowledge about gems and jewellery.

L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts is described as an initiation school, meaning it is open to everyone with no special prerequisites; “L’ÉCOLE targets complete beginners as well as enlightened amateurs, collectors and those with a curiosity for the world of jewellery”. Since its inception, L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts has already welcomed more than 40,000 students from some 40 countries, with ages from 18 to 83 years.

Originally the school had what it called a nomadic life, putting on exhibitions and running courses around the world but with only one permanent home, its original Paris base. The addition of permanent campuses – which include purpose-designed tutorial rooms and display spaces – means L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts can run a full scheduled programme of courses and talks locally, with the opportunity for research and publishing plus long-run free-to-visit exhibitions.

The Dubai campus for instance opened earlier this year in Dubai Design District with the Garden of Emeralds show, a spectacular survey of the most prized and certainly the most studied of gemstones. That exhibition aimed to introduce as many people as possible to “the scientific, cultural, artistic and technical aspects of this gem” via a tour that took the visitor from the depths of the earth to the workshops that create the most beautiful pieces of jewellery. Characteristically, the exhibition drew from loans from Van Cleef & Arpels as well as other luxury brands and private collectors with research and specimens from the Mineralogy Museum Mines ParisTech, ranging from uncut stones through gouache design drawings to finished pieces.

Just closed here is Gold and Treasures, showing another approach to L’ÉCOLE exhibitions. This had hundred or so pieces from the Mengdiexuan Collection, a genuinely outstanding private art collection from Hong Kong that spans more than three thousand years of goldsmithing work from China; the emphasis here was on the cultural history of the region as well as the beauty and delicacy of the work itself, with no explicit link to Van Cleef & Arpels beyond the shared commitment to design and quality.

Sophie Claudel (right), director of L’ÉCOLE Middle East, has promised that the Dubai school will “intertwine its French roots with the Middle Eastern cultural landscape” with “many opportunities for cross-cultural exchanges in a region where everything is possible”. It will be interesting to see what this means in practice, but already the school has established relationships with a number of local arts and cultural institutions – among them ADMAF, DIDI, Al Safa Library and of course Dubai Culture.

The next public exhibition opens in d3 in November, and the autumn schedule of courses and talks for Dubai starts in the first week of September. Delivered by specialists including art historians, gemologists, jewellers and craftsmen, each course will bring together a small group of students – most have no more than 12 participants, the more hands-on courses are limited to six.

The classes are mostly hands-on and practice-based. In the art history courses, for instance, students have access to antique jewellery from L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts collections; in gemology classes, they will be able to observe the different characteristics of precious stones in real life using the instruments of the professional gemologist. The result should be a remarkable insight into the world of haute jewellery.

And it’s worth noting that all of the proceeds from L’ÉCOLE’ Middle East’s courses and talks will be donated to Dubai Cares, a UAE-based global philanthropic organisation, to support its youth education programs. As the press release put it at the time, “Dubai Cares’ commitment to providing access to quality education aligns seamlessly with L’ÉCOLE Middle East’s philanthropic mission to nurture talent and creativity. Together, they channel their efforts towards initiatives that promote equitable education opportunities, especially in underprivileged communities”.

L’ÉCOLE Middle East is located on the ground floor of Dubai Design District’s Building 10. All the courses are detailed below with links.

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