PARIS - When the doors open next autumn at the Paris campus of Parsons the New School for Design, the program will be both the oldest and newest overseas branch of an American university. Frank Alvah Parsons, the director of what was then known as the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, initiated a Paris program in 1921. (The school was renamed for him in 1941.)
The school's most enduring physical symbol, the Parsons Table, with its characteristic square legs placed flush with the ends of the tabletop, was the product of a drafting exercise at the Paris campus taught by the interior designer Jean-Michel Frank. The French program was closed down temporarily during World War II; but when Parsons merged with the New School for Social Research in 1970, the Paris branch was part of the deal.
Over time, the relationship between the home campus in Greenwich Village in New York and the Paris program grew distant. “It became more of a licensing agreement,†Joel Towers, the school's executive dean, said by telephone from New York. In 2010, the former licensee changed its name to the Paris College of Art, and the New School was free to return to Paris under the Parsons name.
The new campus, which will be introduced officially at a reception at the Palais de Tokyo on Nov. 29, is the first step in what New School's president, David E. Van Zandt, describes as “a much more fluid†approach to international education.
Located on the Rue Saint-Roch, the Parsons Paris School of Art and Design will eventually accommodate 300 to 500 students, who will be free to begin their studies there or in New York, and also to spend time at associated campuses in Shanghai and Mumbai.
“We see this less as a satellite campus and more of a node and network system,†Mr. Towers said.
The school will offer bachelor's and master's degrees in a variety of art, fashion, design and business disciplines, with classes in English.
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