Initiated in 2017 by the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, “Les apprentis collectionneurs” is an educational programme supported by SOGEDA (Société pour la Gestion des Droits d’Auteur) which aims to familiarise teenagers with contemporary art, as well as with one of the missions of museums: collecting.
The 2023 year’s edition
For its seventh edition, the project has once again brought together students from the Institution François d’Assise-Nicolas Barré and the Lycée Albert I. Accompanied by their teachers Laurent Papillon and Jean-Guy Cuomo as well as Benjamin Laugier, responsible for audiences at the NMNM, the students followed a series of meetings, exchanges, visits and workshops throughout the year.
This year, 48 students went to the artgenève fair thanks to the sponsorship of Mrs Safia El Malqui. They carried out research and selected one or more works by the same artist with an acquisition budget of 20,000 euros. Then, 20 shortlisted students presented and argued their choices in front of a jury composed of H.R.H. The Princess of Hanover, President of the Acquisitions Committee and of the Board of Directors of the NMNM; Mrs Safia El Malqui, collector and 2023 patron of the programme; Mrs Émilie Girard, Scientific Director and Director of the MUCEM collections; Mr Éric Mangion, Artistic Director of the Villa Arson, Nice; Célia Bernasconi, Chief Curator of the NMNM and Mr Björn Dahlström, Director of the NMNM.
This year it is the installation Masks, 2017 by David Medalla, acquired from the Enrico Astuni Gallery, Bologna, and presented by Shaylee Dana, a student at the Lycée Albert I, which joins the NMNM collection.