“When we ask people if they know the Osmothèque.
They tell us Osmo, what?
» Isabelle Chazot, the president of the scientific council of this international perfume conservatory can only note that “despite its 35 years of existence, the place is still little known”.
To give it greater visibility, there is talk of finding another site “with a storefront” in Versailles or elsewhere.
Today, housed on the Isipca campus, the Osmothèque, open to the general public only during heritage days or during conferences, is a little cramped.
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“It’s a growth crisis that we are facing,” analyzes Anne Cécile Pouant, its director.
The Osmothèque, in parallel with its conservation work, carries out mediation and transmission work.
She organizes conferences and videoconferences all over the world, works with the general public through workshops in schools, nursing homes, prisons, etc. but also with scientists, without forgetting her representation of the perfume industry. .
Looking for financial support
“It is important to have a setting worthy of the treasures we preserve.
The Osmothèque is the living memory of know-how, of art.
She is the guardian of an olfactory heritage that she preserves for future generations,” argues Thomas Fontaine, its president of this place which has two employees and operates with a handful of passionate volunteers.
“We need funding to be able to do it with more resonance,” continues the director, appealing to both the public authorities and possible private funders.
“As perfumery is not considered a heritage object, we are obliged to do the work of evangelization,” she indicates to the former.
We participate in the valorization and promotion of a profession considered rich and paradoxically certain houses are completely absent from our financing,” she continues, targeting the latter.