Festival team
The scientific programming of the Festival is provided by a dedicated team within the Department of Studies and Research of the National Institute of Art History.
Veerle Thielemans, scientific director
Veerle Thielemans is a doctor in art history specializing in 19th century French painting.
A graduate of the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and former student of the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), she defended her doctoral thesis at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, United States). After twenty years spent at the Terra Foundation for American Art, where she was Director of Academic Programs, she took over as head of the team dedicated to the Festival within the INHA in December 2018.
Sophie Goetzmann, programming manager
Sophie Goetzmann, PhD in art history from the Université Paris-Sorbonne, specializes in the German avant-garde. She is the author of a thesis on the reception of Robert Delaunay within Berlin Expressionism. She has worked as a researcher at the Musée National d’Art Moderne and the German Center for Art History. She joined the Festival team as Scientific Program Manager in October 2024.
Damien Truchot, programmer and cinema section coordinator
Damien Truchot has taught the history and aesthetics of cinema. He is a specialist in the relationship between dance and cinema. He has co-directed two films with Cédric Mazet Zaccardelli and Olivier Rignault, “Continu” (2014) and “Parler de parler sans” (2018). He directed and programmed the L’Archipel cinema in Paris from 2013 to 2020, and co-founded “Enlève tes chaussons rouges”, a festival of danced films, in the Île-de-France region. He is a member of the pre-selection committee for the Côté Court Festival in Pantin, and runs the Ciné Malraux in Bondy. He joined the Art History Festival team in autumn 2021.
Aniela Cornet, scientific and administrative coordinator
With a degree in international relations from Inalco (in Russian and Polish) and in cultural management from Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, Aniela Cornet is passionate about the cultural professions abroad and in France. Before joining the Institut national d’histoire de l’art to support the teams in the administrative and scientific implementation of the festival, she worked at the Alliance Française de Saratov (Russia), then at the Ministry of Culture on international projects, and also supported a museography consultancy in its development (Avesta Group).
The technical organization is based on the Château de Fontainebleau, which also develops the cultural program offered to festival-goers.
Grégoire Bruno Orcibal, General Delegate
Grégoire Bruno Orcibal holds degrees in law from Sciences Po and in management, governance and international negotiation from ESSEC. After undergraduate studies in art history and archaeology at the University of Lille (Lille 3) and then at Untref in Buenos Aires, he joined the Ecole du Louvre. This multi-disciplinary career path led him first to work as a lawyer in various business firms, then to take charge of institutional relations within a professional organization. He then returned to the École du Louvre as project manager to the school’s director. In 2023, he became general delegate for the art history festival at the Château de Fontainebleau. At the same time, he is a lecturer in Greek, Roman and Early Christian art history and archaeology at the École du Louvre.
Other people involved in the preparation of the Festival
Marie-Laure Moreau, head of the communication department, INHA
Anne-Gaëlle Plumejeau, communication and press relations officer, INHA
Sarah Chiesa, communication officer for the Art History Festival, INHA
Mathilde Joerger, digital communications manager, INHA
Sylvain Moulène, Director of Development and Communications, Château de Fontainebleau
Angéline Hervy, Head of Marketing and Communications, Château de Fontainebleau
Justine Saillard, communications manager, Château de Fontainebleau
All the departments of the INHA and the Château de Fontainebleau are also involved in the preparation and implementation of the event.
