The Académie de la Grande Chaumière, a historic Paris art school founded in 1904 that taught artists like Balthus, Joan Miró, and Louise Bourgeois, faces eviction by July 31 after its owner Alexandre Garèse declined to renew its lease. Garèse plans to redevelop the Montparnasse site into a mixed-use complex with commercial and cultural spaces, hiring architect Franklin Azzi for the project. Over 21,000 people have signed a petition to save the school, and local heritage groups SOS Paris and Monts 14 have rallied against the closure.
This matters because the Académie represents a living link to Montparnasse’s early 20th-century avant-garde heritage, having nurtured generations of international artists in an accessible, low-cost setting. Its potential loss highlights tensions between preserving cultural institutions and commercial redevelopment in historic neighborhoods. The case also underscores how private ownership and lack of official historic monument status leave such landmarks vulnerable, even when they continue to serve thousands of students annually.