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Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 23 , Number 1 2008| 1The Getty Conservation Institute

Conservat ion


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Q

The GettyConservationInstituteNewsletter

Volume 24, Number 1, 2009

Front cover:Instructors and participantsin a May 2008 site management workshopat Dougga, an ancient-Roman WorldHeritage site in Tunisia. The workshopwas organized by the GCI and TunisiasInstitut National du Patrimoine. Photo:Christian De Brer, GCI.

This publication was printed

on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

certifed recycled paper

with vegetable-based inks

at a acility using wind power.

A donation to the American Forests

ReLea program has been made

by the Green Print Alliance

on behal o the GCI,

or its use o FSC-certifed paper.

The J. Paul Getty Trust

James Wood President and Chie Executive Ofcer

The Getty Conservation Institute

Timothy P. Whalen Director

Jeanne Marie Teutonico Associate Director, Programs

Kathleen Gaines Associate Director, AdministrationJemima Rellie Assistant Director, Communications and Inormation Resources

Kathleen Dardes Head o Education

Giacomo Chiari Chie ScientistSusan Macdonald Head o Field Projects

Conservation, The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter

Jerey Levin Editor

Angela Escobar Assistant Editor

Joe Molloy Graphic Designer

Color West Lithography Inc. Lithography

The Getty Conservation Institute works internationally to advance

conservation practice in the visual artsbroadly interpreted to include

objects, collections, architecture, and sites. The Institute serves the

conservation community through scientifc research, education and training,

model feld projects, and the dissemination o the results o both its own work

and the work o others in the feld. In all its endeavors, the GCI ocuses on the

creation and delivery o knowledge that will beneft the proessionals and

organizations responsible or the conservation o the worlds cultural heritage.

The GCI is a program o the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural

and philanthropic institution that ocuses on the visual arts in all their

dimensions, recognizing their capacity to inspire and strengthen humanistic

values. The Getty serves both the general public and a wide range oproessional communities in Los Angeles and throughout the world.

Through the work o the our Getty programsthe Museum, Research

Institute, Conservation Institute, and Foundationthe Getty aims to urther

knowledge and nurture critical seeing through the growth and presentation

o its collections and by advancing the understanding and preservation

o the worlds artistic heritage. The Getty pursues this mission with the convic-

tion that cultural awareness, creativity, and aesthetic enjoyment are essential

to a vital and civil society.

Conservation, The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter,is distributed

ree o charge three times per year, to proessionals in conservation and

related felds and to members o the public concerned about conservation.

Back issues o the newsletter, as well as additional inormation regarding

the activities o the GCI, can be ound in the Conservation section o the

Gettys Web site. www.getty.edu/conservation/

The Getty Conservation Institute

1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 700Los Angeles, CA 90049-1684 USA

Tel 310 440 7325

Fax 310 440 7702

2009 J. Paul Getty Trust

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Cert no. SCS-COC-001309


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C

o

nt

ents

Introduction 4 A Note from the Director

By Timothy P. Whalen

Feature 5 Conservation Education at the GCI Past, Present, and Future

By Kathleen Dardes

To serve the expanding learning needs o conservation, the gci, in the early part o this

decade, began laying the oundations or a department ocused exclusively on education

and training. Today the gciEducation department not only undertakes initiatives in areaswhere the Institute has expertise but also applies innovations in teaching to those initiatives.

Dialogue 10 Out in the Field A Discussion about Education and GCI Field Projects

Neville Agnew, gci senior principal project specialist; Francesca Piqu, ormer gci project

specialist; and Thomas Roby,gci senior project specialist, talk with Kathleen Dardes, head

ogciEducation, and Jeffrey Levin, editor oConservation, The GCI Newsletter.

News in 16 Advancing Photograph Conservation A New Initiative in Central,

Conservation Southern, and Eastern Europe

By Sean Charette

The gci has partnered with the Academy o Fine Art and Design and the Slovak National

Library in Slovakia to advance photograph conservation in the region through an education

initiative. This multiyear effort includes providing theoretical and practical knowledge o

photograph conservation through a series o summer schools and distance learning.

18 Sustaining Conservation Education in Southeast Asia

By Jeff Cody and Kecia Fong

In 2008 twenty-ve conservation proessionals rom Southeast Asia participated in a

workshop organized by the gci, the Lao pdrs Ministry o Inormation and Culture, the

Lerici Foundation, and seameo-spafa. Held at the World Heritage site o Vat Phou, the

workshop ocused on conservation o archaeological sites and was the inaugural event othe gcis Built Heritage in Southeast Asia Conservation Education and Training Initiative.

20 Cracked, Warped, and Cradled! Training in the Structural Conservation

of Panel Paintings

By Foekje Boersma and Sue Ann Chui

To address the pressing training needs in the structural conservation o panel paintings, the

Getty Museum, the Getty Foundation, and the gci have embarked on a multiyear initiative

that seeks to increase knowledge regarding conservation problems and solutions related to

panel paintings, as well as to increase the number o expert conservators.

22 Out of the Box and Thinking The GCI Conservation Guest

Scholar Program

By Kristin Kelly

The gcis Conservation Guest Scholar program is a rare opportunity in the conservation

eld or senior proessionals to pursue research and innovative thinking. The program

offers conservation proessionals an opportunity to step away rom their daily routines,

providing them with the time and resources to research and write in their elds o expertise.

GCI News 24 Projects, Events, and Publications

Updates on Getty Conservation Institute projects, events, and publications.


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4 Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 23 , Number 1 2008| Feature

A Note from the Director

By Timothy P. Whalen

This edition of Conservation, The GCI Newsletterhighlights education and training at the gci.

Education has always been a core activity o the Institute, as it is an important means to advance the practice

o conservation and, with it, the proessionalism o the eld itsel. The Institute has pursued a range o

educational activities over the years, rom courses and workshops to eld-based activities that allow a direct

exchange o new inormation and ideas with other colleagues.

There is a large audience o conservation proessionals who, like proessionals in other disciplines,

need opportunities to increase their own learning in pace with the advances o the eld. In the conservation

eld, there are relatively ew providers o midcareer training or proessionals on either the national or

international level. For this reason, we decided that the Institute should serve the learning needs o the

eld through a department dedicated to the design and implementation o education and training projects

or proessionals.

So it was that in October 2007gci Education became a reestanding department within the Institute.

The work o the Education department, like that o the Institute itsel, addresses both built heritage and

collections. Its programswhich refect both the needs o the eld and the gcis own areas o expertise

are international, generally ocusing on countries or regions o the world where proessionals may be

underserved by the existing cadre o educational providers. In coming years, we expect to offer more

courses that draw upon the research undertaken at the gci; this will allow us to expand our audience as webring new technical developments rom our labs into conservation practice. The Education department will

also take a leadership role in investigating new methods and media or teaching and learning, bringing in

new ideas rom the mainstream o education to the teaching o conservation.

We have always operated under the premise that education initiatives are among the most effective

means the gci has o contributing to the development o the conservation proession. With this edition o

our newsletter, we are pleased to give you a glimpse into the thinking behind this important part o our work.

A nal note: the next edition o the gci newsletter will be published in October o this year with a new

design and a new nameConservation Perspectives: The GCI Newsletter. The newsletter will now appear

twice a year, in the spring and in the all. While the publication remains ree, subscribers need to complete

and return the subscription renewal orm they received earlier this year in order to continue receiving the

publication. I you are currently a subscriber and have misplaced your renewal orm, you can resubscribe

online at www.getty.edu/conservation/subscribe/. We also invite you to subscribe online to the new GCI

Bulletina ree, bimonthly e-bulletin with the latest inormation on gci projects, activities, and publications.

To sign up, please go to www.getty.edu/conservation and click on the GCI Bulletin link.

We hope that you nd this editionand uture editionso the newsletter to be helpul in illuminat-

ing the variety o issues acing the conservation eld.

4 Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 24 , Number 1 2009| A Note rom the Director


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Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 24 , Number 1 2009| Feature 5

As Tim Whalen explained in his introduction to this

edition o the newsletter, Education became a reestanding depart-

ment within the Getty Conservation Institute in October 2007.

While the department itsel is relatively new, gci involvement in

education goes back a long wayin act, to the earliest days o the

Institute itsel. For more than a decade, the gcis Training Programoffered an ongoing series o short courses and workshops addressing

a range o topics that dealt both with built heritage and with

museum collections. The gci has also continued a long-standing

tradition o incorporating training into its eld projects, tailoring

efforts to the learning needs o specic groups o proessionals

within the countries or regions where our work occurs (see Dia-

logue, p. 10). The educational activities o some o the Institutes

eld projects have produced didactic resources that can potentially

be much more broadly used in other teaching contextsa recent

example being Technician Training for the Maintenance ofIn Situ

Mosaics (2008), published by the gci and the Institut National du

Patrimoine o Tunisia. This compilation o materials was developed

over the course o several teaching campaigns in Tunisia.

While these eld-based training activities have been successul,

the need or education and training in a number o other areas

(both thematic and geographic) has increased over the years,

refecting the rapid growth o the conservation eld itsel and,

with it, the expansion o its body o knowledge. Advances in

research have yielded better understanding o materials and their

mechanisms o deterioration, and these developments have pro-

duced innovations in preventive and interventive treatments.

New specialty areas have emerged to address the preservation

requirements o contemporary and nontraditional materials, media,

and technologies. While conservation was once viewed as a largely

technical eld, conservation proessionals now must be alert to the

cultural, spiritual, economic, and other values inherent in heritage

values that may play a role in their decision making. In short,

conservations knowledge base is not just increasingit is changing.

Conservation Educationat the GCIPast, Present, and Future

By Kathleen Dardes

GCI senior project specialist Thomas Roby workingwith two participants rom the Mosaics In Situstechnician training program at the site o Dougga,Tunisia. Photo:Aurora Ortega de Torre, GCI.


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or teaching and learning, or collaboration and networking, and

or building a strong community o practice among proessionals.

One o our priorities as a department is to research and apply

innovations in teaching and learning to the gcis educational work,

adapting them to the working contexts o the participants o our

projects. However, a undamental rst step in exploring pedagogy isto refect upon the learning process itsel, especially as experienced

by adults, to understand better the motivation or and uses o

learning by proessionals. In other wordswhy do people learn,

how do they learn, where do they learn, and how do they apply

learning in their proessional lives?

How Professionals Learn

Education, especially or the proessions, is a process that involves

more than learning about a topic. Its about learning to become a

proessional, equipped with the expertise and the ethos to unction

within a community o peers. The act that proessionals in a given

eld possess certain traits in common may have less to do with the

content o the ormal instruction they received than with how,

through ensuing experience, they learn to unction within a proes-

sional community whose members share the same values, knowl-

edge, skills, code o conduct, and language. Proessionals get their

start in the classroom, but they become ully ormed by the work-

place, whatever it may be. We learn rst rom teachers and ellow

students, and later rom colleagues, mentors, and supervisors.

A tenet o ormal education, particularly or the proessions,

is that it prepares the way or lielong learning. The concept o

lielong learning emerged rom the infuential report Learning to Be

by Edgar Faure and colleagues (unesco, 1972), which dened

education as a process that extends well beyond traditional academic

settings. The Faure report was also the rst to promote the idea

o a learning society in which individuals enjoy opportunities

throughout their lives to expand knowledge and adapt their skills to

changing personal and proessional circumstances.

Nearly orty years ater the Faure report was published, these

concepts endure as cornerstones o modern educational thinking

To serve the expanding learning needs o the eld, the gci,

in the early part o this decade, began to lay the oundations or a

department that would ocus exclusively on conservation education

and training. While training would continue within the context

o most o the gcis Field Projects, the new Education department

would give the Institute the opportunity to target specic topics oraudiences that lay beyond the scope o eldwork.

The rst ew years o the Education department have been

ones o growth and refection. As new staffjoined the department,

resh voices were added to an ongoing and ar-ranging discussion on

how the strengths o the Institute could best meet the learning

needs o the eld. Participating in many o these conversations were

colleagues working either with museum collections or with built

heritage, and they articulated needs that they had observed within

these areas. Especially important to this process were discussions

with proessionals working in regions o the world where the eld

o conservation is still nascent and where additional training and

networking opportunities would contribute to the urther develop-

ment o the proession.

This combination o consultation and contemplation created

the oundations ogci Educations current work program, which

will evolve urther as the department expands. Most o our educa-

tional activities will ocus on areas where the gci has had a long track

record, whether gained rom research or rom eldworkor both.

These areas include the conservation and management o archaeo-

logical sites, the environmental management o collections, and the

conservation o photographs. Newer but growing research areas

within the gcior example, the conservation o modern and

contemporary artwill result in training activities that respond to

the urgent need to improve understanding and treatment o this

class o materials.

As we consider the needs o the eld itsel, we will also explore

some new possibilities or pedagogythe theory and practice o

teachingand how it is refected in conservation education. Recent

developments within the education eld, and the increased use o

electronic technology, have signicantly expanded the possibilities

Let:Participants in the 1987 course PreventiveCare o Historic Photographsone o the manytraining courses oered by the GCI through themid-1990s at its Marina del Rey acility. Photo:Thomas Moon, or the GCI.

Right:Instructors at the Teamwork or IntegratedEmergency Management course in southeastEurope preparing materials or an exercise onsalvaging objects ater an emergency. Photo:

Foekje Boersma, GCI.


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As proessionals move through their careers, they are likely to

evolve in any number o ways, pursuing additional learning through

both ormal and, mostly, inormal means. Some career paths may

demand sudden and requent change, while others call or more

subtle and steady growth. Some knowledge and skills acquired at

the start o a career may seem less important later onor maybecome obsolete altogetheras new materials and technologies

come into use and demand new understandings or behaviors rom

practitioners. An individual whose work may be largely technical at

one stage o a career may assume an entirely different roleperhaps

as a manager or an educatorat a later stage. In these roles, techni-

cal knowledge is still important, but different and newer skills are

required. In the workplace, inormal learning provides the timely

inormation and stimuli that allow people to cope with changing or

uncertain circumstances. Learning uels adaptation, as new inor-

mation is acquired, tested, rened, and nally integrated into

proessional practice. By the time most people are ready to retire,

it is estimated that at least 70 percent o the job-related knowledge

theyve acquired over the years has been obtained through inormal

learning (Center or Workorce Development, The Teaching Firm:

Where Productive Work and Learning Converge, 1998).

Education planners, who tend to ocus on the more structured

aspects o learning, oten overlook the importance o inormal

learning in the development o proessionals and o the proessional

ethos. In education or the proessions, internships and residencies

come closest to providing the type o learning that most proession-

als experience in the workplace. While they cannot strictly be

classed as inormal learninggiven that they generally exist within

the ramework o a structured and ormal program o learning

they do prepare younger proessionals or the type o inormal

situational learning that will be a large part o their lives in the

workplace. By combining planned learning experiences with the

randomness o real lie, internships and residencies offer opportuni-

ties or interaction, problem solving, and coping with the uncertain-

ties o the workplace. As such, they provide important transitions

rom academia to praxis.

and practice, particularly in the proessions. Students entering an

academic program in preparation or a proessional career soon

discover that their education will not end in a ew years time with

the conerring o a degree or diploma. Rather, they have made a

commitment to lielong learning, which means increasing their

expertise at every career stage as a responsibility o their choseneld. As is the case in other proessions, students o conservation

are advised o this responsibility as part o their orientation to

the eldor example, by the brochure Conservation Training in the

United States, published by the American Institute or Conservation

o Historic and Artistic Works (2001).

However, lielong learning does not mean lielong schooling.

As the Faure report and subsequent literature have noted, lielong

learning is a process that includes both ormal andto an even

greater extentinormal learning. While ormal education is the

traditional portal into most proessions, the ability to evolve and

to learn to be a ull practitioner is, in large part, the product o the

inormal learning that occurs in the workplace. Inormal learning is

the knowledge transmitted through unstructured situations

conerring with a peer, reading a journal article, researching a

problem encountered on the job, engaging in shoptalk with

colleaguesin other words, the sorts o activities that characterize

the working lives o most proessionals. Although seemingly

random and spontaneous events, these are, in act, knowledge-

creating activities that expand expertise and allow proessionals to

respond to new or changing circumstances. Indeed, most o the

knowledge that humans acquirewhatever their walk o lie

occurs outside a ormal learning environment in circumstances that,

although unstructured, are highly important. Inormal learning is

usually sel-directed and socially driven, requiring access both to

inormation and to other people who may be needed to interpret

or validate that inormation. While inormal learning cannot replace

ormal education (which provides knowledge undamental to a

eld), it does have a critical role to play. It contextualizes and

expands upon ormal learning by taking it rom the classroom and

applying it to circumstances in real lie.

Instructor Monique Fischer (right) discussing the condition o a photographwith a participant in the Fundamentals o the Conservation o Photographscourse, a three-year program or conservation proessionals in central,southern, and eastern Europe. Photo:Sean Charette, GCI.


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The GCI Approach to Learning

As is the case with other proessions, many skills needed in conser-

vation are acquired or honed outside the boundaries o traditional

classrooms. As the gci Education department considers how it will

respond to challenges in the eld, we anticipate that short courses

and workshops, which can ocus quickly on the immediate needs

or inormation and skill building, will remain an important part

o the Institutes work. However, our work will also refect the act

that education does not stop with ormally organized courses but

is experienced throughout a career. We anticipate making more

and better use o opportunities or inormal learning and the

interpersonal connections it entails. This will be particularly

important in areas o the world where conservation as a eld is

relatively young and where some proessionals may have limited

contacts with peers elsewhere.

One way to extend learning into the workplace is to blur the

traditional boundaries o a course. A course or workshop no longer

needs to be dened by a specic time period or by a particular

location. Given the communication possibilities provided by

electronic technologies, a ormal learning experience that began

in a traditional classroom setting may now be extended, and even

transormed, through distance learning, coaching, and mentoring.

Oten less structured than a classroom-based course, mentoring and

coaching provide the essential ingredient o inormal learning

social interactionthat in turn osters a sense o proessional

community and identity.Mentoring as an adjunct to classroom learning in conservation

education was rst explored in the Teamwork or Integrated

Emergency Management courses, a collaboration o the gci, icom

(International Council o Museums), and iccrom (International

Centre or the Study o the Preservation and Restoration o

Cultural Property) (see Conservation, vol. 23, no. 1). Since then, the

gci has applied this model to a series o annual courses, Fundamen-

tals o the Conservation o Photographs (see p. 16). The design

o these courses includes mentoring between instructors and course

participants, as well as among groups o participants, or a period

o several months ollowing the classroom phase o the course.

Mentoring guides the activities that participants pursue in the

workplace, as they draw upon the inormation presented earlier

in the classroom. As they undertake this work (either individually

or in collaboration with ellow participants), they remain in contactthrough a course Web site with instructors who may advise, com-

ment, or provide additional inormation.

Mentoring can be adapted to a specic context, including

situations where it may be difficult to maintain long-distance

relationships through electronic communication. An example can

be ound in the two training components o the gcis Conservation

o Mosaics in Situ projectone directed to archaeological site

managers and the other to mosaic technicians. These two compo-

nents involved a series o training workshops or campaigns or

personnel responsible or caring or Tunisias rich heritage o

archaeological mosaics. Most o the participants took part in a series

o training campaigns designed to support an incremental process

o learning and experience. Between each training campaign, the

participants applied what they had learned to their own work sites;

an instructor visited the work sites to assess progress and provide

additional mentoring as required. Critical to the success o this

learning model is an instructor-participant relationship that extends

beyond the temporal boundaries o a single short workshop or

training event. Longer-term encounters acilitate better understand-

ing and more condent practice. A somewhat different approach,

although one that still depends upon a longer-term engagement

with groups o learners, can be ound in the gcis Southeast Asia

initiative (see p. 18). While the initiatives courses and meetings

involve different groups o individuals and institutions, these events

are designed to build a regional community o practice.

Over the next several years, the gci will undertake a number

o new strategic education initiatives, each ocusing on a specic

topic or region. These initiatives will be carried out in partnership

with other international or regional organizations, as well as other

entities o the Getty Trust. An example is the Panel Paintings

Conservator George Bisacca (Metropolitan Museum o Art, New York)and Jose de la Fuente (Prado Museum, Madrid) working on AlbrechtDrers panel painting Eveat the Prado Museum, October 2008. TheGettys Panel Paintings Initiative is a multiyear project designed toaddress the need or educational resources and training opportuni-ties in the structural treatment o panel paintings. Photo:CourtesyGeorge Bisacca.


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Initiative, a collaboration o the gci, the Getty Foundation, and the

J. Paul Getty Museum (see p. 20). The Panel Paintings Initiative

aims to address the long-standing need or training in the structural

stabilization o panel paintings. One o its objectives is to develop

residencies in panel paintings stabilization, which will allow younger

practitioners to work closely with and learn rom a number oexperts practicing in Europe and the United States. Regular

updates on this and other education initiatives undertaken by the

gci will appear in uture issues o the newsletter, as well as on the

Getty Web site.

As the Education department expands over the next several

years, pedagogy will be an increasingly important area o research,

particularly as it applies to conservation, to the audiences were

likely to serve, and to the contexts in which they work. An important

aspect o this work will be the development o case studies that

refect the complex real-lie situations encountered by conservation

proessionals in the course o their work. While case studies are

common in business, legal, and medical education, their potential

has not been ully explored in conservation education. Case studies

developed by the gci will offer an array o issues and viewpoints and

will requently require that learners engage in interdisciplinary

collaboration to reach an agreement. These case studies, ater being

eld-tested in the gcis education projects, will be made available to

other teachers through the Gettys Web site. For example, the gci

has created a preventive conservation case study o a historic house

museum in Amsterdam (www.getty.edu/conservation/education/

case/case_component1.html).

Lifelong Learning and Connections

In recent years, the eld o education, considered broadly, has been

going through a remarkable transormative phase, driven in part by

technological advances that have inspired new ways o thinking

about and pursuing learning goals. Many o these developments

hold considerable potential or conservation education, both in the

classroom and in the workplace. In the uture, lielong learning or

conservation will likely mean more than simply acquiring new

inormation and skills. The extra and enriching dimension is the

connectedness that results rom increased peer interactions,

whether these come in the orm o ace-to-ace communication or

are aided by some orm o inormation technology. Indeed, Web 2.0

applications that assist communication and collaborationblogs,

social networks, discussion orums, and wikismay be what givethe biggest boost to a global community o lielong learners, eager

or both inormation and connection. As these communication tools

become more common, they are likely to grow in importance in

areas where the conservation eld is still developing.

Learning has expanded into new settingsthe workplace,

the eld, and even cyberspacepresenting resh opportunities or

both ormal structured learning and inormal learning. Given the

rapid pace o scientic and technological advances in the eld,

particularly in recent years, conservation proessionals need to be

prepared to assimilate new scientic or technological advances

quickly, as well as adopt new ways o thinking and learn new

applications within their areas o expertise. At the same time, they

will nd the advantages o being part o a more socially connected

community, as inormation technologies expand the geographical

reach o the workplace. As the gci Education department grows, our

work will increasingly extend beyond the walls o the classroom and

the boundaries o traditional courses, refecting the act that

learning must happen where and when it is needed.

Kathleen Dardes is head o GCI Education.

Workshop participants analyzing the conditions o a deterioratedstructure at the World Heritage Site o Vat Phou, Lao PeoplesDemocratic Republic. This workshop was part o the GCIs BuiltHeritage in Southeast Asia Conservation and Education TrainingInitiative. Photo:Je Cody, GCI.


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10 Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 24 , Number 1 2009| Dialogue

Out in the FieldA Discussionabout Educationand GCIField Projects

Neville Agnew is senior principal project specialist

with GCI Field Projects. A member othe Institutes

staffor over twenty years, Agnew, a chemist by

training, has served in several leadership positions

at the GCI and has headed up a number ocollab-

orative eld projects. These have included work inChina and on the Iraq Cultural Heritage Conserva-

tion Initiative, as well as the Southern Arica

Rock Art Project. His newest project ocuses on

conservation and management or the Valley othe

Queens in Egypt.

Francesca Piquwas ormerly a project specialist

with GCI Field Projects. Piqu, with a background

in both chemistry and wall paintings conservation,

worked on GCI projects in China, Benin, Israel, the

Czech Republic, and Tanzania, as well as Italy

(her native country). Now based outside oFlorence

as a conservation consultant, she continues to work

with the GCI on the Organic Materials in Wall

Paintings project and on the project at Herculaneum.

Thomas Roby is a senior project specialist with GCI

Field Projects. With a background in archaeology

and conservation, Roby worked as a private conser-

vator based in Italy or teen years, prior to joining

the GCI in 2001. Since coming to the Institute, he has

managed the GCIs Conservation oMosaics In Situ

technician training program in Tunisia. He also

served as the GCIs senior project conservator

on the development oa conservation plan or the

hieroglyphic stairway at the Maya site oCopn

in Honduras.

They spoke with Kathleen Dardes, head o

GCI Education, andJeffrey Levin, editor o

Conservation, The GCI Newsletter.

Kathleen Dardes: From the beginning, education and training have

been an important part oGCI Field Projects, which seeks to

advance conservation practice through model eld projects

around the world. In all othese projects, the GCI works with

local partners to enhance expertise and to ensure the sustainabil-

ity othe work. Obviously, training contributes to that.Since the three oyou have been greatly involved in GCI

Field Projects, we wanted your refections on these efforts. In other

words, what issues has the Institute been trying to address through

the training that has been part othese projects; what approaches

have you ound to be most successul; and where should training

out in the eld go in the uture?

Neville Agnew: Let me start by saying that there has been a shit in the

Institutes approach to training in conservation in the eld and in

eld projects. The gcis ormer Training Program [198597]

organized ormal courses directed mainly at midcareer proessionals

and covering a variety o topicsintensive courses that ran rom

one to three weeks. This was very valuable, but it explicitly

excluded technician training. So that group was a ocus o our early

training in our eld projects. Our approach has broadened more

recently to address in more pragmatic ways several levels o educa-

tion and training.

At one level, its decision makers. We try to ulll this not

necessarily through training, but we do try to infuence through the

collaboration, so that we achieve a common understanding. At the

mid-stratumwhich is the old stratum o midcareer proession-alstheres still some ocus. And then, thirdly, there is technician

training. Very oten these are the colleagues who do the work on the

ground, so its important to build their knowledge and skills.

One o our approaches is repeated course work with the same

group, because one inoculation o training is seldom effective in the

long run. You have to ocus intensively on pretty much the same

group and carry them through the process, so that they begin to

adopt a new way o doing things and develop a good understanding

o conservation principles and practice.


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Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 24 , Number 1 2009| Dialogue 11

Francesca Piqu: I eel that the thinking behind gci training is

also related to the sustainability o our effort. I we work at a site

in China or in Arica addressing a challenging conservation

problem with our local partnersan effort that takes a lot o

resources and a lot o timewe want to ensure that the results are

sustainable over time. So training the local proessionals, at all the

different levels and in all aspects o the project, is essential. Also,

we know that oten the one-shot treatment is not effective enough,

and that monitoring and maintenance are essential. It is important

that we involve, through training and education, the local partners,

so that ater a project is completed, the results can be monitored

and maintained by prepared proessionals.

Ideally, everywhere we do a project, we should create a legacy

o conservation experts who understand deterioration and are able

to request help or do remedial treatment i the need arises. A good

example o this is the St. Vitus mosaic project in Prague [www.getty.

edu/conservation/eld_projects/vitus/], where the post-

treatment monitoring and maintenance o the protective coating orthe glass mosaic are crucial. In this project, the conservation team

included senior and experienced Czech conservators working with

junior conservators, who would be able to learn and continue to pass

on the knowledge and requirements or the monitoring program.

The monitoring continues to be carried out regularly by a senior and

a junior conservator.

Thomas Roby: I agree that or long-term sustainability, mixing ormal

training and inormal training is important. In the Institutes

Mosaics In Situ project in Tunisia [www.getty.edu/conservation/

eld_projects/mosaics/index.html], the idea was to ocus on

technician training, where, through a shorter program o study,

we could begin to produce personnel who could work on sites on a

daily basis. Weve luckily had the opportunity in Tunisiaater the

ormal training, which lasts or two yearsto return to the sites

where our trainees have been working and to work with them in

addressing new or more challenging situations that they might not

be prepared or, or to help them establish their work in a new site.

Its extremely important that there be continued mentoring and

long-term support or the people were training.

Piqu: I would add that when we work in a new country, we oten

deal with new problems and materials, and its been useul or us to

have this close interaction with the local experts because there is a

lot to learn rom them. We denitely learn what is available locally,

how they use their materials, and how they have dealt with problems,

as well as learn about different conservation methods that they may

have. This aspect o exchange is very important because it enables

us to develop an intervention together with the partners.

Jerey Levin: Thats an important point. Neville, could you talk

more about this interaction and how it builds a larger base

oknowledge or both sides?

Agnew: Our training in the context o the eld projects themselves

has been inormal because the objective is to undertake the project

collaboratively. We involve our partner organization in the method-

ology o the work and the thinking behind the methodology.

Certainly we learn rom themparticularly rom their way o doing

things but also rom their understanding o their own culture and

history, which is very inormative to us and infuences our thinking.

An example would be the ways in which local communities have

cared or rock art in southern Arica. They have a vested interest in

taking care o their rock art, not only or tourism and economic

reasons but oten or traditional ceremonies. We have realized that

to be effective, we have to adopt a multi-pronged approach to bring

the partner staffinto the equation and to infuence them in a

systematic way or the better.

One way in which we have been able to create a sustainable

effect is through bringing partner organization staffto the Institute

here in Los Angeles. This builds them into the project in ways that

are o value to both sides. I you put yoursel in the place o

technicians or site managers in Arica or China who are descended

upon by a team o Getty people to do a collaborative projectthey

have no real sense o where were coming rom and our proessional

context. So having them come to the gci to work with us is an

effective bridging mechanism.Another way o striving or success is through mentoring

on a regular basis. For example, our mentor in Egypt has a PhD in

architecture and regularly visits our wall painting and site manage-

ment teams in Luxor to spend a couple o days with them. From the

projects perspective, mentoring is important not only or its

educational component but because it maintains the projects

momentum between campaigns.

We involve our partner

organization in the

methodology of the work

and the thinking behind

the methodology.

Neville Agnew

JonathanBell,

GCI.


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Dardes: In the initiatives omy department, GCI Education

[www.getty.edu/conservation/education/about/], weve also

seen the value ousing mentors, although we use them in a

somewhat different way. I am always curious about how people

respond to mentors. I think there must be some compatibility

between the mentor and the learner.

Agnew: Its a good question. I think it depends upon the personality

o the mentor. A mentor should be able to communicate in a way

that is nonthreatening and should be seen by both sides as a commu-

nication link, gaining the condence o the team.

Piqu: It is essential in projects to keep the momentum going. For

example, in a project with two xed campaigns per year, we would

leave trainees a set o conservation or documentation and monitor-

ing activities to be done in between campaigns. Nevertheless, it was

hard to maintain the peak o the activity o campaigns ater the gci

team let, and communication was difficult and costly. Nowadays,

it is much easier to be in touch remotely, and the moment a traineends himsel in a difficult situation or needs some advice and

technical support, he can use communication tools like email,

videoconerencing, and even Skype, which is ree. Communication

technology has advanced signicantly compared to ten years ago,

when we were working on the bas-relie project in Abomey [www.

getty.edu/conservation/eld_projects/abomey/index.html].

Then, even a phone call was difficult.

Levin: Tom, how have you dealt with this challenge omaintaining

momentum?

Roby: Our approach has been to organize specic campaigns or

generally six weeks twice per year, but between these ormal

campaigns, work assignments are given, and we have tried to have

one o the teachers visit the sites where the trainees are based to

ensure that the assigned work has been carried out satisactorily.

We have also organized a review, or reresher, campaign to bring the

trainees together again ater several years. And when the trainees are

going to work in a new site, we generally make the effort to be with

them and to try to coordinate their work rom the beginning, in

terms o documenting mosaics and organizing materials. This hasbeen done in Tunisia with technicians, where theyve lacked the

supervising person, who would be the conservator.

Levin:Are there other lessons youve learned over the years with

respect to organizing this training?

Roby: We started offexpecting all o the trainees to be able to do all

o the different aspects o mosaic conservation and maintenance,

but weve come to realize that its perhaps best to select trainees who

will be able to be a bit more specialized in different aspects o the

work. They still should have the basic background and even practi-

cal training in all aspects o the work, but now we look or people

with different educational backgrounds so that theyll be more adept

at different operationscreating a team not o specialists but o

individuals with skills in different activities. There is an optimum

level or, say, a technician whos mainly doing manual work, and

then theres someone with a higher educational level who wouldcarry out much o the documentation.

Weve also adjusted how we do the training because, in many

cases, the educational tradition o the country emphasizes memoriz-

ing and learning things by rote. Weve tried to not get caught in the

trap o providing, lets say, a manual o how to do things. Its

extremely important to consider every situation and every mosaic

individually and determine the appropriate treatments by applying

principles, not recipes.

Agnew: So youre emphasizing analysis and decision making?

Roby: At the technician level, its difficult to get the kind o analysis

that you would expect o a conservator. But decision making about

what are going to be the correct ingredients or making an appropri-

ate mortar or a specic repair operation and situation? Yes. The

amount o time we spend doing practical work with them helps

build up their competence. For sure, with certain individuals who

have a strong commitment and skills, weve seen that they can, at the

end o a minimum o two years, begin to approach things on their

own and appropriately adapt the methodology theyve learned to

different situations.

Piqu: In the Abomey project, we carried out training at two

different levels. Our communication with the conservation trainees

was in French, the countrys official language. But when it came to

training the techniciansthe people who would be responsible or

the regular monitoringwe decided that this training would be

done effectively through the conservation trainees who spoke Fon,

the local native language. The conservation trainees were the bridge

between us. We prepared the course material, but it was actually the

conservation trainees who passed on the inormation to the techni-

cians directly in their language and in an effective manner.

If we work at a site . . .

addressing a challenging

conservation problem with

our local partners, we want

to ensure that the results

are sustainable over time.

Francesca Piqu

GiacomoChiari,

GCI.


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Agnew: Thats a very interesting way o doing thingshaving the

involvement o a trainee group in teaching. Because thats actually

how you learnthrough teaching.

Piqu: Its so true. It was really effective or the conservation trainees

to train the technicians. They elt that they had absorbed the con-

cepts and the methodology o the work and were ready to pass it on.

Dardes: One othe things the GCI Education department is doingis taking people who participated in a previous course and

bringing them in as teaching assistants or new courses, so that

they can, as Neville said, learn how to teach and learn to use our

materials and resources as they partner with more experienced

teachers. Thats been extremely useul because it does, slowly but

surely, build an education inrastructure.

Agnew: One o the problems that weve aced wherever weve

workedparticularly in countries where theres a tradition o rote

learning and more top-down decision makingis that both conser-

vation technicians and even conservation proessionals are oten

expected to do physical interventions on cultural material. That is

their job. And they are judged by that activity. What you tend to see

is a haste to intervene. The approach is not rst one o measured

assessment, diagnosis, testing, and then, nally, intervention.

In China, the China Principles [a gci collaborative project that

developed and promoted national guidelines or conservation and

management o Chinas cultural heritage sites] has been a valuable

tool in beginning to convey the importance o doing the assessments

rst. The last thing you do is intervene, not the rst. It has been a

huge challenge to break that mold and to inculcate a systematic

methodological approach.

Piqu: Thats absolutely the challenge. I we are working with and

training at the level o the technicians but they dont have managers

or supervisors who understand and support new ways o working

such as a methodology that doesnt embrace immediate treatment

but avors stopping and thinking rstthen its impossible or

training to be effective, and we risk losing all results.

Roby: In Tunisia weve seen lots o examples o technicians whove

been expected to intervene immediately and quickly. Theyre oten

judged, as Neville said, on the amount o treatment work theyre

able to do, not on the quality. We try to address this pressure by

having meetings on site among the site directors and the technicians

and to have them work together to develop a program o interven-

tion that is based on prioritieswhich in turn are based on an

assessment o conditions at the site.

Piqu: Another typical problem is that trained proessionals later

leave their positions and move on to higher posts with different

responsibilitiesand thereore what theyve learned cannot be used

in the context in which they were trained. Weve experienced that in

projects in China and Benin. Weve had people who were trained to

do a specic type o work and who later were moved to another

department, so the training is lost to the original context. This is

why education must be done at all levels, so that the people who

decide where they go do understand the importance o their role in

their position, with the knowledge gained through our collaborative

project.

Agnew: Theres an old adage about planting three seedsone or

the crow, one or the drought, and one or the crop. The attrition

rate among trainees, through leaving their jobs, is oten high.

One has to have sufficient numbers o participants trained over

a sustained period o time to hope that a ew get through those

various lters and challenges, so that you do have some who later

will be infuential.

Ultimately the success in countries in which we work relies

on having proessionals ormally educated in conservation. Thats

difficult or us to undertake. One experiment that Ive been involved

with is setting up a masters degree course in China between

Lanzhou University and the Dunhuang Academy, with the partici-

pation o the Courtauld Institute o Art and the gci. To bring

together the our partners and to obtain the approval o Chinas

state administration took some years to do, but the university is on

its second class o students now. The objective is to train a proes-

sional cadre o conservators, because in China, as elsewhere,

proessionally educated conservators are very rare birds. The

long-term objective is to create a sustained program that serves

all o Chinanot just the Dunhuang Academy. The Institutes

involvement is or two three-year cycles o masters degrees. I it

doesnt take ater that and cannot live on its own, we would let it go.

Levin: China, ocourse, is a very large country with substantial

resources, and it can certainly sustain the existence othat

kind oprogram. Is that possible in some o the other places where

we work?

Agnew: Weve never tried to do it elsewhere. In some instances it

could be possible, but each would require time and careul negotia-

tion. Part o the problemand this may refect a problem in

conservation generally in such countriesis that the intake

students or the course at Lanzhou University oten ail the national

entrance exam. That tells us that a lot o people in China have taken

on conservation work without a sufficient level o education to

qualiy or a national university-level degree. Thats startling. Weve

overcome that by encouraging the Dunhuang Academy to give

intensive coaching to prospective students to get them through the

entrance exam and into the masters degree program.


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New Projects

Piqu: Conservation has become a highly scientic discipline

compared to what it was a ew decades ago. The level o knowledge

that a conservator should ideally have is much higher than what it

used to beprimarily hands-on cratsmanship knowledge o how

material behaves. There is no doubt that the scientic approach is a

good thing, but on the other hand, because were shiting toward the

theoretical approach, we start to see a lack o good conservators who

know how to treat material in a compatible and minimal way. At the

end o the day, one o the hardest parts o a conservation program is

the development and implementation o a sound, long-lasting

intervention to address a particular conservation problem. Hands-

on conservation experience cannot be learned rom a book but

requires practice over a long period o time.

Agnew: But, Francesca, you have to have a person who has enough

ormal education and training to be able to make the decisions and

then provide the right input to the technicianwhat the approach

should be and how the intervention should be done. Conservation

still suffers rom its history. It has less academic credibility in

universities than the long-established areas o the arts and the

sciences, or example. It just doesnt have that. Nor does it attract

people who could make more money in, say, computer science and

similar disciplines. Its got a lot stacked against it. This is why we

come back to the need or a multipronged approach that includes

things like technician training, midlevel career education, and

university standard programs.

Roby: A problem we ace is that many people in different parts o the

world who get ormal university training in conservation oten endup not being the ones to do the actual intervention or manual work.

There is a big divide between the people who actually do manual

work and the proessionals who dont. A conservator has a prole

that should bridge that gapcombining an academic background

with manual skills and the desire to be on site.

Agnew: We can hope that the person who has proessional knowledge

and understanding o how to conserve and manage would be the

person in charge o determining what kind o intervention should

be done, and would be the person who can direct the operations

o well-trained technicians in implementing those decisions.

Roby: The situation we nd in Tunisia is i we have a conservator

recently trained, that person may be able to make the decisions

about treatmentbut is not going to be the person who can actually

train the technicians, by example, manually. He or she wont have

the practical experience. So, ideally, yes, it would be the local conser-

vator who does the training o the technicians. But it will take years

o experience ater their training beore they can train others.

Levin: Related to some othe things we just talked about is the

objective oostering networks oproessionals. This is something

that the GCI Education program is trying to do. Has this been a

part oany othe education efforts oGCI Field Projects?

Agnew: The objective o the Southern Arican Rock Art Project was

to look regionally at the twelve southern Arican countries to

develop site management plans or rock art, and to be more strategic

by bringing in participants rom different parts o the region to

work togetherwith the expectation and hope that they would stay

in contact with one another and share knowledge and inormation.

The other thrust o the project has been to provide training skills at

the local level, which qualies participants to serve as guides to rock

art sites. Weve done training courses in the impoverished Clanwil-

liam area in southern South Arica or young people who have no

ormal trainingand also in the north, in Mapungubwe, where

weve trained park rangers who are generally well qualied in the

natural environment but have no experience as guides or rock art

sites. So its a many-part endeavor.

Levin: What are some othe things that we should be doing

as we rene our efforts with respect to education as part oour

eld projects?

Agnew: One o the things that may have been neglected is distribu-

tion o training materials on a wider basis. We have a lot o good

material. In the early days o the Training Program, it was deter-

mined that each training course would have to be tailored to a

particular audience. Theres a lot o value in that. The downside is

that much o the material has not been made accessible and is

moldering on the shel. We have a huge volume o material that

could be disseminated.

Dardes: This is a very important aim or our department. However,

it requires us to make sure that were not just disseminating odd

bits that come out oour courses but that whatever we produce can

be understood by uture users, whether theyre practitioners or

other educators. Were looking at models oopen source course-

ware and teaching materials to understand how people dissemi-

nate the products otheir teaching. Its also been useul to see howsome othese models oster the creation oa community o

educators, where theres a lot otraffic back and orth oideas and

meaningul didactic resources.

Agnew: I agree with that absolutely. But I do have a note o caution.

I remember when we were developing the research material that

came out o the Getty Seismic Adobe Project [www.getty.edu/

conservation/science/seismic/], and someone said, You know,

youve written the book. Now its as though youre walking next to a

high wall and you toss the book over it. Hope One is that someone


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on the other side will pick it up. Hope Two is that that person will

read it. Hope Three is that it will be understood. And Hope Four is

that the person will be able to apply the knowledge useully.

Dardes: Youve made an important point, and this is why

I discourage people rom just sitting down and writing didactic

materials or hypothetical courses. It never works. You have to

plan the course, design the materials, teach the course, and then

disseminate the materials. But disseminate them with the

insights gained rom actually using the materials in an authentic

teaching situation.

Levin: Tom, are there some other things besides materials that you

think are important to consider in uture training that is part o

GCI Field Projects?

Roby: The experience that Ive had in Tunisia has shown me that

when one is training people to actually do physical intervention

on a work o art, it is a great responsibility. Weve seen poor use o

our training in some cases, but it has demonstrated that the people

whom we train need to be the right people, people who have

commitmentand that its not just a way o becoming employed.

In uture training activities, we should pay more attention to the

choice o individuals who will be receiving the training.

In the beginning in Tunisia, we were only training people

who were already employees, because that was an insurance that

they would continue to work. Then, as we continued, we increas-

ingly trained people who were not already involved in governmentwork. Fortunately, many o those people, in the end, were hired, but

the choice o the individualand again, with the aim o choosing

people who will provide an effective team o different skills

is extremely important.

Levin:And in that process, are you also looking at people who

have the skills, ability, and willingness to be conveyors o

inormationindividuals who not only assimilate the inorma-

tion youre giving them but who can, over time, turn around and

convey inormation to their own colleagues?

Roby: Weve made signicant attempts to do that, and weve involved

the previous trainees in the current training activities. Weve

realized, though, that theres a certain amount o reluctance among

the trainees, because some o them see their skill as what guarantees

their employment. In some cases, weve seen a real reluctance to

share their knowledge with other, younger people. But in other

instances, weve seen trainees taking on this role. However, it doesnt

replace a lengthy ormal training process. Theres quite a difference

between being trained by the trainee and being trained directly by

the ormal instructors o the courses.

Piqu: I think we could improve training in gci Field Projects by

more effectively collaborating with colleagues with education and

training experience. Once we are in the eld, we are so involved with

all the complex components that make up a eld projectincluding

developing intervention, documentation, and so many other

logistical aspects o the projectthat its not easy to give enough

ocused attention to training and education initiatives. Going back

to the experience that we had in Abomey, having a colleague

Valerie Dorgewho was responsible or the training aspect o the

project was helpul. It did take a bit o our time and additional

planning, but in the end, the results, in terms o education and

training, were denitely there to be seen. And the training

material was organized to be adapted or use in other projects in

French-speaking countries, such as the mosaic conservation training

in Tunisia.

Roby: In most o the situations weve been talking about, training

is one aspect o a larger project, which has its own objectives.In Tunisia, weve had the luxury o training being the essential

scope o the project. It didnt ever go beyond that, and in that way,

it probably could and should have been within the gci Education

department. It has more in common with gci Education activities

than with gci Field Projects.

Dardes: Our ocus in GCI Education is certainly, as we grow, to be

more involved with Field Projects, in those instances where there

is a dened component otraining. We can assist in taking that

burden offthese enormously complex projects, as well as making

sure that the products oour training efforts are disseminated.

Were also, by the way, looking at working more closely with

GCI Science, because theres a lot oresearch coming out othat

department that should be disseminated through courses and

workshops. Only the act that we are still a small department

has stopped us rom doing more othis. Its denitely in our

sights to work with both Field Projects and Science in a more

integrated way.

The people whom

we train need to be the

right people, people who

have commitment.

Thomas Roby

JonathanBell,

GCI.


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16 Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 24 , Number 1 2009| News in Conservation

practical knowledge o photograph conservation through an

ongoing series o summer schools and distance learning activities.

It draws upon the expertise o the international community o

photograph conservators to provide training and resources and to

encourage the development o a new and enduring network o

photograph conservation proessionals in the region.A three-year regional course entitled Fundamentals o the

Conservation o Photographs is the rst component o the initiative.

The course combines classroom instruction with distance learning

activities that extend teaching and learning beyond the connes o

the classroom. In the context o the conservation o photographs

course, distance learning is linked to practical workplace experience,

and it incorporates a variety o teaching tools, including use o a

course Web site, application o course lessons to workplace situa-

tions, and distance mentoring conducted by course instructors via

the Internet.

Each year, or module, o the course begins with a two- or

three-week summer school and is ollowed by eight months o

distance learning and mentoring. During this period, participants

Advancing PhotographConservationA New Initiative in Central,Southern, and Eastern Europe

By Sean Charette

The field of photograph conservation is characterized by

a network o proessionals who have built a strong community o

practice, dening photograph conservation as a distinct specializa-

tion within conservation. This international community o photo-

graph conservators is a dynamic one, as refected in the work

o proessional associations such as the icom-cc Working GroupPhotographic Materials and the Photographic Materials Group

o the American Institute or Conservation.

However, despite these strengths, there is a need within the

eld or additional trained photograph conservators to deal with an

ever-expanding range o photographic materials, especially in parts

o the world where ormal training in the conservation o photo-

graphs is lacking. One such region consists o central, southern,

and eastern Europe, whose museums, archives, and libraries are

home to a rich heritage o artistic and documentary photographs.

A needs assessment conducted by the Getty Conservation Institute

in 2006 clearly indicated that interest in preserving this heritage

is strong among conservation proessionals in this region but that

educational opportunities to aid in this preservation effort

particularly at the academic levelare limited. In recent years,

the Northeast Document Conservation Center o Andover, Massa-

chusetts, has offered in the region several short courses on various

photograph conservation topics. As successul as these courses

have been, there remains a large group o regional proessionals

conservators, curators, librarians, and archivistswho are

interested in acquiring additional expertise in understanding and

caring or photographic heritage.

A Regional Initiative

Following the needs assessment, the gci partnered with the Acad-

emy o Fine Art and Design (afad) in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the

Slovak National Library in Martin to advance regional photograph

conservation through an education initiative entitled Conservation

o Photographs and Photograph Collections or Countries o

Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe. This multiyear initiative

has a number o objectives, including providing theoretical and

Instructor Monique Fischer discussing the condition o a photograph withcourse participants. Photo:Sean Charette, GCI.

Course participants learning to identiy photo-graphic processes using microscopic examination.Photo:Dusan Stulik, GCI.


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Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 24 , Number 1 2009| News in Conservation 17

There are also less ormal activities, which do not involve

scheduled assignments. For example, participants are encouraged

to build their own photographic study collection or teaching and

reerence purposes. They may request and receive guidance rom

course instructors and make use o analytical equipment at summer

schools to ully characterize and understand these study collections.In addition, with the support o course instructors/mentors,

participants are encouraged to address research questions that will

advance the eld (particularly important at this time o signicant

change in the eld o photography) and to disseminate inormation

and resources through proessional activities.

The course Web site plays a crucial role in the distance-

learning phase o the project and in promoting communication.

In addition, it serves as a central reerence point or inormation and

documents related to the course. All o the teaching material created

or compiled or the coursearticles, bibliographies, handouts, and

other material developed by the instructorsis maintained on the

course Web site and is available or participants to read or download

at any time.

Instead o a series o separate workshops, this initiative

provides a learning process that participants themselves help shape

through ongoing dialogue. The three-year ormat o the course

extends learning and acilitates communication with the goal o

building a network o inormed, well-connected, and active conser-

vation proessionals in central, southern, and eastern Europe.

This growing community o conservation proessionals will, in turn,

contribute to the strength o photograph conservation as a proes-

sion and help the proession meet the challenges o conserving

photographic heritage.

Sean Charette is a project specialist with GCI Education.

Specic inormation regarding the content and curriculum othe

Fundamentals othe Conservation oPhotographs course can be

ound at: www.getty.edu/conservation/education/cons_photo/

cons_photo_course.html.

carry out capacity-building activities within their own collections,

applying learning acquired during the summer school with the

ongoing support o course instructors/mentors.

The seventeen course participants are conservators, archivists,

and other proessionals responsible or the care o photographic

collections. The same core participant group is maintained through-

out the course, in order to acilitate the ormation o proessional

networks. The course instructors and mentors, established leaders

in photograph conservation, use a team-teaching approach in the

classroom and during distance mentoringan approach that

incorporates a variety o perspectives and allows healthy discussions

to develop.

Module 1 o the Fundamentals o the Conservation o

Photographs course began with a three-week summer school held

at afad in Bratislava rom July 21 to August 8, 2008, ollowed by the

distance learning and mentoring phase o the module, which runs

through April 20, 2009. Module 2 o the course will begin with a

summer school in Slovakia in the summer o2009.

Extending Learning

Extending learning beyond the classroom is a critical part o the

Fundamentals o the Conservation o Photographs course. This

component allows course participants to continue to develop their

knowledge and practical skills in their own workplace within a

structured ramework o learning and guidance. Participants

become comortable making decisions and applying new skills

within the context o their own collections, as well as communicat-

ing conservation concerns and ideas to their colleagues.For example, the program o distance learning used or the

rst module o the course consists o one primary activitythe

survey o a small collection o photographs (a personal or amily

collection). The survey includes a number o tasks that are carried

out over the eight-month distance-learning period, with partici-

pants presenting the results o these tasks in a series o reports.

The initial report describes the collection in terms o processes and

parameters; the second describes the collections condition and

priorities as identied by the participant. The nal report outlines

a detailed conservation plan addressing such subjects as conserva-tion treatment and preventive conservation recommendations;

access to the collection and related issues o documentation and

digitization; and unding sources or the collections conservation

and maintenance.

The reports are posted to the course Web site. Mentors review

them and provide comments that are shared among the group, so

that others may read and discuss them. The course Web site

includes a discussion orum that may be used in this way or utilized

or more general discussions.

GCI senior scientist and course instructor Dusan Stulik examininga photograph with a participant in the Fundamentals o the Conservationo Photographs course. Photo:Art Kaplan, GCI.


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SustainingConservation Educationin Southeast Asia

By Jeff Cody and Kecia Fong


The needs assessment also raised questions. Should the educa-

tional work be geared to proessionals rom several Asian countries

(with different languages, economies, and politics), as opposed to

those rom an individual country? I the intended audience comes

rom many countries, then where, geographically, should the gci

ocus its activities? How, and with whom should partnerships beorged? How should instructors rom outside the region teach

participants who came rom within the region? What would be the

duration o the gcis contact with any one group or the duration o

any individual activity? This last question o duration touched upon

issues o sustainability and capacity building.

With these questions and the needs assessment in mind, gci

Education staffdesigned an initiative with three overlapping

components:

1. eld workshops or conservation proessionals,

2. didactic materials or conservation education, and

3. meetings o topical interest or proessionals in conservation

and other related elds.

Each component is geared toward a particular audience.

The eld workshops, which are or practicing eld proessionals,

are characterized by practical, problem-based learning on site.

The didactic materials component is being developed collabora-

tively with Southeast Asian educators and practicing proessionals

to create region-specic case studies or use in academic and

training programs. The meetings o topical interest are or proes-

sionals o diverse skills whose work impacts heritage conservationbut who are not necessarily conservation proessionals. Collectively

these components, launched in 2008, address both ormal and

inormal modes o learning at various stages o a proessionals

lielong learning process.

The Initiative in Action

The eld workshops are envisioned as a series o intensive activities

that cohere around themes that vary according to the conservation

challenges o a particular site. Participants represent a variety

During the seventh centuryalong the Mekong River in

what is now the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao pdr)an

extensive, ortied city fourished as an important regional trading

center. For its inhabitants, the natural land ormations near the city

signied a holy site and inspired them to build temple complexes

dedicated to Hindu gods. One o the most important temples cameto be known as Vat Phou.

Fourteen hundred years later, the town o Champasak is home

to the World Heritage site o Vat Phou. There, in spring 2008,

twenty-ve young conservation proessionals rom Thailand,

Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Lao pdr participated in a

two-week workshop organized by the Getty Conservation Institute

(gci) with three other partners: the Lao pdrs Ministry o Inorma-

tion and Culture, the Lerici Foundation, and seameo-spafa (the

Southeast Asian Ministers o Education Organization Regional

Centre or Archaeology and Fine Arts). Entitled From Risk Assess-

ment to Conservation: Saeguarding Archaeological Complexes in

the Mekong Region, the workshop was the inaugural event o the

gcis Built Heritage in Southeast Asia Conservation Education and

Training Initiative.

Creating the Initiative

Although many domestic and international organizations are

working in Southeast Asia, the region remains in need o more

ocused conservation education. In the early 2000s, the gci decided

that it wanted to complement the efforts o others in strategic ways

by improving regional conservation practices and building a

community o local conservation practitioners. The shape and

direction o the gci initiative developed rom an assessment con-

ducted by the gci that identied several areas o conservation need:

archaeologicalsites,

materialsconservation,

mixedarchaeologicalandurbancontexts,

urbandevelopmentandconservationplanning,

builtheritageconservationeducation.

The World Heritage Site o Vat Phou, Lao Peoples Democratic Republicthelocation o the workshop From Risk Assessment to Conservation: Saeguard-ing Archaeological Complexes in the Mekong Region. Photo:Kristin Kelly, GCI.


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and practitioners o conservation programs in the Asia Pacic

region related to built heritage gathered to discuss the gaps between

the content o Asian Pacic conservation programs and the needs o

the eld. The gci will take a leadership role in working with local

educators and practitioners to develop region-specic case studies.

The third component ocuses on nonconservation proes-sionals whose work impacts heritage. They are oten neglected but

critical participants in heritage protection. Fostering constructive

dialogues among several kinds o proessionals was one o the key

objectives o the recent orum held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, this

past October. Coorganized by the gci in conjunction with three

other national and international organizations, the orum brought

together orty Cambodian and oreign experts; these included

developers, economists, planners, tourism officials, monks, and

conservation proessionals. They discussed how the rapid and

oten unregulated urbanization o Siem Reap can be detrimental

to the historic resources o nearby Angkor Archaeological Park

and its local residents. The orums lively exchange o views

underscored the importance o understanding the interrelation-

ships between dynamic development and conservationas opposed

to seeing them solely in confict with each other. The summary

points resulting rom the orums discussions, including recom-

mendations or action, will appear in a nal report that will be sent

to both apsara (Authority or Protection and Management o

Angkor and the Region o Siem Reap) and the Siem Reap provincial

government.

The gcis Southeast Asia Initiativewith its multiaceted

design and diverse pedagogical approachesseeks to engage a

broad spectrum o conservation proessionals. It is hoped that the

three complementary components o the initiative will support

learning and improved conservation practice, not just at a single

point in the careers o Southeast Asian practitioners but at various

stages o their proessional lives.

Je Cody is a senior project specialist and Kecia Fong is a project specialist with GCI

Education.

Conservation, The GCI Newsletter| Volume 24 , Number 1 2009| News in Conservation 19

o skill sets, including, but not limited to, archaeology, archi-

tecture, landscape architecture, engineering, and urban planning;

this diversity refects the interdisciplinary nature o conservation

and the reality o the proessionals who actually perorm conserva-

tion work.

The 2008Vat Phou workshop ocused on assessing a siteholistically as a dynamic, interconnected place, rather than as a

series o disparate, static monuments, and it emphasized the

importance o understanding the site in the context o its broader

geographic and social dimension. By mapping layers o value over

perceived risks to the site, participants were able to begin prioritiz-

ing risks and needs. The workshop promoted a practical, value-

based methodology predicated upon identiying risk and prioritiz-

ing problems so that effective solutions could be implemented.

In terms o pedagogy, multiple means were used to engage the

participants, especially since the language o instruction (English)

posed an inevitable challenge. In addition to ormal lectures,

emphasis was placed on more interactive teaching methods, which

included guided discussions, participant presentations, group work,

diagnostic eldwork, and eld trips.

The second workshop in this seriesto be held at Chiang

Saen in northern Thailandwill take place in November 2009.

At this workshop, the concepts and methodology taught at Vat Phou

will be reinorced and applied in a location where an urban settle-

ment is developing in the midst o a large archaeological site.

Community participation in conservation decisions is likely to be

an important component o the curriculum. We anticipate that a

core group o participants rom the Vat Phou workshop will

continue with the Chiang Saen workshop; thus, ample opportunity

will be provided or learning and practicing new methodologies and

or promoting contact within this evolving regional community o

conservation practitioners.

While lielong learning or proessionals is essential, there

remains a great need or didactic materials at the academic level.

This was the clarion call o the 2008 Directors Retreat (see Conser-

vation, vol. 23, no. 2), organized by the gci, where twenty leaders

Southeast Asian conservation proessionals working as a team duringa workshop eld exercise. Photo:Je Cody, GCI.

Workshop participants assessing the state o conservation o a allen statue,as part o a eld exercise. Photo:Je Cody, GCI.


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Panel supports, prepared by skilled woodworkers, were either

made rom a single piece o wood or constructed rom a number o

pieces joined together or larger paintings. In the case o paintings

with complicated structures, such as polyptychs, the woodworker

cooperated closely with the painter, who provided specications or

the manuacture o the support.Wood, an organic material, continuously responds to changes

in temperature and humidity. Its ability to absorb and desorb

moisture rom the surrounding air (thereby swelling and shrinking,

respectively) makes paintings on panels susceptible to structural

damage caused by climatic changes, including warping, twisting,

and splittingall o which affect the paint layer in a negative way.

The worst o these processes can cause paint loss.

In most cases, ater repeated cycles o swelling and shrinking

in response to changes in the environment, paintings on panels are

no longer fat, as originally constructed. The pervasive aesthetic

notion that paintings ought to be fat (regardless o their substrates)

resulted in various treatments to control the movement o wooden

supportsmovement that would damage the paint layer. A com-

mon way to impose fatness on a deormed panel (something that

cannot in actuality be ully achieved) was to remove hal or more

o the thickness o the support and to attach a rigid structure, called

a cradle. Probably the most extreme intervention was to remove the

wooden support completely and to transer the paint layer to canvas.

In more recent times, with the growth o proessional conservation

approaches, less-invasive treatments have been developed that

respect the original materials and construction o a painting.

The Expertise Gap

Conservation as a proession grew out o crats with centuries

o experience in manuacturing. The rst generations o restorers

were mostly trained in workshops as apprentices, and they had the

strong hand skills necessary to make objects appear as new. With the

development o the conservation proession, training and education

moved rom the workshop to schools and academic programs. At

present, most conservation programs are based within universities.

Cracked, Warped,and Cradled!Training in the StructuralConservation of PanelPaintings

By Foekje Boersma and Sue Ann Chui


How many of us pay attention to the words oil on panelwhen

reading a label next to a painting hanging in a museum? The

implications o this short phrase or the preservation o the painting

are unknown to most o us. Paintings conservators are an exception.

For these specialists, the conservation challenges presented by

paintings on wood panels are all too clear. Unortunately, there areonly a ew experts worldwide who restore these works, and even

ewer new specialists entering the eld.

To address the pressing training needs in the structural

conservation o panel paintings, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the

Getty Conservat

VVAA. Conservation. GCI. 2009

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Transcript of VVAA. Conservation. GCI. 2009