Académie des Arts Appliqués de Dijon closes permanently

The Académie des Arts Appliqués de Dijon, a private art school in Burgundy, announced its definitive closure on April 3 via social media, just one month after being placed in receivership by the Dijon commercial court. The institution, which had offered four bachelor's programs in design and a preparatory class for competitive art school entrance exams since 2012, had been in severe economic and structural crisis, with enrollment dropping from 90 to 30 students over four years. In March 2026, several teachers revealed they had not been paid since January. The school also faced unstable governance after its founder-director Olivier Laloux went on sick leave; since October 2025, interim direction was handled by his father, Gabriel Laloux, a former agricultural high school teacher.