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MSI student attends cultural heritage curator program in Paris
(Dec 2007) MSI student Anne Bast fell in love with France on a six-month study abroad as an undergraduate. Returning to her studies at Hope College with vivid memories of the richness of French culture, she added an art history major to the French major she was already pursuing.
Now Bast is returning to Paris to continue her education and her immersion in French culture as the first American student to enter the 18-month advanced certificate program at the prestigious Institut National du Patrimoine →, or INP. The INP trains the elite of France's cultural heritage preservation professionals, sending most of its graduates on to mid- or upper-level management positions.
Bast's INP opportunity is one product of a long relationship between U-M's Bentley Historical Library → and the French National Archives.
For each of the past 12 years, an INP student has met that program's international internship requirement by coming to work at the Bentley, the visit usually timed in connection with SI's archives practicuum course.
After applying and interviewing with visiting INP officers last spring, Bast, who works part-time at the Bentley, has become the first student to go the other way in this international exchange.
She's entering an exclusive realm. Her class will have fewer than 40 students out of more than six hundred candidates who took the entrance exam last fall.
The 18 months abroad will complement her master's work at SI. "The theoretical background I've gotten here will be really, really useful," Bast says. She will leave the program with a diploma as a "conservator" (more directly translated as "curator" in English) from the INP and an MSI degree from SI.
The INP program emphasizes adminstration and management and includes coursework coupled with four required internships, including a six-month internship in a Paris archive in her primary area of focus, one internship outside of her primary area, and an international internship.
Fran Blouin, director of the Bentley Historical Library and a professor at the School of Information says Bast's program will be supported "under the auspices of our ongoing exchange," though he's quick to point out that this is likely a one-time opportunity rather than an ongoing program.
He also points out that the exchange is a good example of the close relationship between the Bentley and the School of Information: "It's this broader context of SI that gives it some of its strength."
Bast hopes to return to work in the U.S. after earning the INP diploma. "I'm excited about getting an international education," she says, "because I've wanted to move into a position with an international focus. Cultural heritage questions in the digital world are really international questions."
Asked what she's most looking forward to, she says it's getting to know Paris on intimate terms (staff at the INP have already helped her find an apartment there) and "getting to speak French again, all the time!" As an American in Paris, she'll no doubt find plenty of opportunity to do that.
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MSI student Anne Bast will attend the prestigious "conservateur" program at the Institut National du Patrimoine in Paris.
The Galerie Colbert is home to the Insititut National du Patrimoine training program for curators of cultural heritage.
(View a larger image →.)
(Credit: Jacques Mossot/Structurae.de)
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