Fondation d’entreprise Hermès is presenting Skills Academy in Japan: Metal Learning – Summer Class. This is neither simply an art exhibition nor a showcase of craftsmanship. The program seeks to cultivate the ability to think through materials themselves.

Installation view of the exhibition / Skills Academy "Metal Learning Summer Class", 2026Copyright Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
Launched in Paris in 2014, Skills Academy is a platform where artists, artisans, researchers, educators, and other practitioners share knowledge and skills. Through metal, this Summer Class reconsiders the relationships between making, sensory perception, and society.

Rather than merely viewing completed works, visitors are invited to touch, observe, and think about the material. That process itself lies at the heart of the program.

What Can Metal Teach Us?

Metal is a material that has evolved alongside human history.

Architecture, industrial products, tools, ornaments, and works of art.

Its applications are extensive, and it forms part of the foundation of contemporary society. Yet while we routinely encounter metal in the form of finished products, we rarely pause to consider the substance itself.

Installation view of the exhibition / Skills Academy "Metal Learning Summer Class", 2026Copyright Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
Here, metal is approached not merely as an industrial material, but as a substance that provokes thought.

Hardness and flexibility. Weight and lightness. Coldness and warmth.

By holding seemingly opposing qualities at once, metal stimulates not only sight and touch, but the imagination itself. Through exhibitions and workshops, the program offers not the passive acquisition of knowledge, but a dialogue with the material.

Learning Not Only Technique, but How to See

One of the defining qualities of Skills Academy is that it does not treat education as the one-way transmission of knowledge. Participants are not simply given finished answers. They are encouraged to observe, reflect, and make discoveries of their own.

That is why the theme is not “metal craft,” but Metal Learning.

The wording positions the material itself as a teacher.

Installation view of the exhibition / Skills Academy "Metal Learning Summer Class", 2026© Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
Courtesy of carlier | gebauer
The exhibition presents not only artworks and the results of artistic research, but also traces of experimentation, production, and thought.

Looking at a work and thinking about its material unfold simultaneously. Through that process, the viewer’s own perceptions are gradually renewed.

Fondation d’entreprise Hermès and Its Continuing Cultural Investment

Cultural support by a luxury house may bring to mind exhibition sponsorship or programs for emerging artists. Yet the work of Fondation d’entreprise Hermès extends beyond either model.

The transmission of craftsmanship. Support for education. Collaborative projects with artists. Dialogue with local communities.

Skills Academy belongs to this broader continuum.

Installation view of the exhibition / Skills Academy "Metal Learning Summer Class", 2026Copyright Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
What matters is that the Foundation does not support only those who produce finished works. It also seeks to carry forward the knowledge, techniques, and capacity for thought that make creation possible.

Culture does not exist through finished objects alone. The processes, accumulated learning, and shared experience behind them are equally part of culture.

Since its establishment in 2008, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has organized its activities around four central missions: the creation of new works of art, the transmission of skills and expertise, environmental protection, and social solidarity. Skills Academy brings these commitments together through material-based learning.

A New Form of Learning Opened by the Summer Class

The Summer Class is neither a museum nor a conventional school.

Some visitors encounter the exhibition. Others take part in workshops. Still others listen to artists discuss their practices.

The program is designed so that people approaching the subject from different positions can enter through the same material. It is not a space reserved for specialists, but an open platform for learning.

Installation view of the exhibition / Skills Academy "Metal Learning Summer Class", 2026Copyright Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
What do we see through metal? What do we feel? And what does it lead us to consider?

Fondation d’entreprise Hermès is not proposing an education designed simply to increase knowledge. It is proposing one that engages the senses and encourages participants to formulate questions of their own.

Metal Learning – Summer Class opens in Tokyo this summer as a laboratory for precisely that form of inquiry.

Installation view of the exhibition / Skills Academy “Metal Learning – Summer Class”, 2026
© Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Fondation d'entreprise Hermès



Installation view of the exhibition / Skills Academy "Metal Learning Summer Class", 2026Copyright Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Fondation d'entreprise Hermès