Are you interested in the conservation and management of gardens protected under the title of historical monuments, property of the State, and their transmission to future generations? Join the very old “Heritage Gardeners” corps! On November 8, 2022, the Ministry of Culture opened an internal competition and an external competition for access to the corps of heads of art in the field of activity «plant crafts».

The gardeners ofs domains state

The gardeners of the Ministry of Culture are responsible for the trades of art in the «plant» speciality, heads of works of art (category A), technician of art (category B) or technical assistant of the State administrations (category C).

To ensure the preservation and enhancement of parks and gardens, the head of art works organizes the work, from a technical and human perspective, and promotes the development of traditional and innovative know-how. He supervises and animates the teams of gardeners assigned to each garden. It ensures the technical and scientific monitoring in its area of competence in order to be able to provide expertise and advice. As such, it may participate in historical and technical studies and in the analysis of a restoration or garden creation project, in consultation with thechief architect of historical monuments or other supervisor and the administrator of the domain. He may also be required to follow these projects.

The corps of heads of art works consists of two grades: head of art works and head of main art works.

The nature of the tests, the general organization of the competitions, the number of posts and the methods of registration are specified in the decrees published in the Official Journal:

  • Order of 23 September 2021 laying down the rules of general organization, the nature and the programmes of the tests and the composition of the jury for the recruitment competitions of heads of art works of the Ministry of Culture.
  • Order of 25 October 2022 Authorizing for the year 2022 the opening of external and internal competitions for access to the body of head of art works of the Ministry of Culture, professional branch, presentation and presentation of collections, field of plant activity. These positions are distributed as follows:
    • external competition: 2 positions
    • internal competition: 2 positions

Applicants must register via the Internet from 8 November 2022 from 12.00 (Paris time) to 13 December 2022, 5.00 (Paris time).

Consult the page dedicated to competition of access to the body of the heads of works of art

Preparing for the 2022-2023 competition

The Ministry of Culture (Directorate-General for Heritage and Architecture, Heritage Service) provides future applicants with documents and useful links to familiarize themselves with the protection and conservation strategy, the historical, regulatory and technical environment of historical monuments in general and gardens in particular.

Future candidates will be able to consult the website Monuments & Sites from the Ministry of Culture to the pages Parks and gardens and Working in a listed and registered garden :

On the page Resources are presented the proceedings of symposia and study days organized by the Ministry of Culture as part of the Go to the gardens and national commemorations celebrating the birthdays of garden designers.

The site of the Heritage and Photography Library provides access to archives and resources related to historical monuments since 1837.

Of formsonline conferences or conferences

Within the framework of training in the fields of tangible and intangible heritage, the site e.patrimoine.org offers online courses: Module 10 - Gardens a heritage to be conserved and enhanced

The conference cycles proposed since 2006 by theChaillot School, entitled "Public courses in history and current architecture", are dedicated to a particular corpus of built space: built habitats and rural landscapes, history of the city, industrial heritage or not yet built, like gardens, etc.

At the international colloquium "Becoming a landscape architect - History and evolution of landscape and landscape project trainings", organized on June 16 and 17, 2022 by the École nationale supérieure de paysage (ENSP), several speakers returned to the first landscape formations.

Aother ressources

The association Plante & Cité produces resources that meet the priority expectations of professionals: reducing plant protection products, saving water, choosing plants adapted to current constraints, preserving biodiversity, etc.

Inquire on thes concourses

The information brochure and the registration procedures are presented by the ministerial office in charge of the organization of the competitions on the page Professional competitions and examinations/ Craft sector/ Head of art work under “External or internal competition – session 2022 – field of activity “plants”.