Design en main. Du langage à l’objet — Galerie nationale du design, Saint-Étienne

France’s national design collections are held in more than thirty thousand pieces spread across the country, and until this year there was no single place to see them. Saint-Étienne — a city whose arms factories, ribbon mills and bicycle works made it an industrial capital, and which has been a UNESCO City of Design since 2010 — opened the Galerie nationale du design on 10 June 2026 to do exactly that.

The inaugural exhibition, Design en main. Du langage à l’objet (Design in Hand. From Language to Object), brings together around 400 objects from the French national public collections. It is curated by the design historian Laurence Mauderli, who teaches at the Ésad in Saint-Étienne, and reads design through the words used to describe it — how naming an object shapes what we see in it, from the city’s own industrial heritage to contemporary practice.

The gallery occupies 1,000 square metres inside the Cité du design, in the former arms factory quarter. The Centre national des arts plastiques is a founding member; loans for the first exhibition come from the Centre Pompidou – Musée national d’art moderne, the Musée des Arts décoratifs et du Design de Bordeaux, the Frac Grand Large – Hauts-de-France, the Mobilier national and Manufactures nationales – Sèvres, among others.

Practical details

• When: 11 June 2026 – 7 March 2027
• Where: Galerie nationale du design, Cité du design, 14 esplanade Jacques-Bonnaval, 42000 Saint-Étienne, France
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am–12.30pm and 1.30pm–6pm
• Admission: €2 until 30 September 2026; free for under-25s, students and over-65s. Free flash guided tours are offered
• Curator: Laurence Mauderli

Full details are on the gallery’s own site. Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition for readers planning a visit to Saint-Étienne; admission is handled directly by the gallery.