Our motto

Transmit the skills and tools necessary to offer the best professional perspectives


To promote transdisciplinarity at all levels


Defend creative, independent and agile thinking


Collaborate closely with internationally renowned companies and institutions


Invite the best professionals (artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, graphic designers, theorists, etc.) as a driving force for excellence and foresight


To give our art school a societal role by providing all the keys to meeting the new challenges that will occupy future generations

Director's word
Alexis Georgacopoulos, Directeur de l'ECAL. Photo ECAL/Younès Klouche
Alexis Georgacopoulos, ECAL Director. Photo ECAL/Younès Klouche
Reinvent yourself, innovate, create new models… A school of higher education in art and design such as ECAL continuously sets itself new challenges to offer its students solutions to contemporary issues while remaining forward-looking.

What skills will they need for their professional future? How can we give them a competitive edge ? What projects, innovations and collaborations are likely to boost their career? In other words, how best to prepare students for working life in multi-faceted professional outcomes? As a State-funded public institution, ECAL has long risen to this challenge with excellence, placing it among today’s world-leading universities of art and design.

With a Foundation year, six Bachelor programmes, five Masters and two MAS, one CAS, on premises of 18,000 sq.m featuring state-of-the-art technology (including a new printing center since end of 2016), a joint lab with EPFL and a 500 sq.m gallery, ECAL offers its 600 students from 40 different countries the best conditions to develop their full potential and truly express their creativity.

Relying on seasoned professionals and world-renowned artists and designers, and via numerous collaborations with and commissions from companies and cultural institutions, the students acquire a solid know-how through an enriching, practice-oriented experience. Through its involvement in various shows, exhibitions and events, ECAL also contributes to highlight its students’ works and enhance their visibility.

This wealth of knowledge fuelled by artistic spirit contributes to placing our students in the limelight, but also to putting our region and country on the map – a place driven by know-how and innovation, where creation is synonymous with passion!

Alexis Georgacopoulos

ECAL Director