Why Study Conservation?
What is Conservation?
Conservation helps cultural and heritage objects ‘tell their stories’ now and into the future. Conservation is concerned with the care, repair and protection of cultural and heritage artefacts including archaeology, antiquities and works of art, all of which may be in private hands or stored and exhibited in museums, art galleries, historic homes or archives. Conservation can be broken down into a series of specialisms, including fine art, paper, textiles, ethnographic material, decorative arts and archaeological objects. At the core of Conservation is an understanding of the science of the materials that comprise cultural objects and investigating how these materials react with the environment around them. Using this understanding, conservators are able to prevent or reduce damage to materials. Work may include the design and application of preventive techniques, which limit the effect of the surrounding agencies of decay on an object. Additionally, work may include hands-on interventive conservation designed to arrest chemical decay and/or enhance its physical integrity. All of this work is set within an ethical framework, governed by professional codes of practice.
Why study for Conservation degrees in Cardiff?
Cardiff University specialises in the conservation of museum objects and archaeological material, using both preventive and interventive conservation procedures. All of our teaching is set against the cultural context of the objects undergoing treatment. Students consider the needs of owners, current and future users of objects in designing their treatments. As a result, Cardiff's undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in conservation produce objects conservators who possess specialist knowledge of archaeological material and conservation techniques.
The UK has a strong tradition of teaching and researching conservation. Cardiff University has been at the forefront of the development of the conservation profession both in the UK and internationally. Currently David Watkinson, Head of Conservation sits on the council of IIC, the International Institute for Conservation and Jane Henderson, Professional Tutor, is a Trustee for Icon the Institute for Conservation and the Welsh Federation of Museums and Art Galleries. Cardiff University have been teaching hands-on laboratory based conservation with a strong academic core since the 1970’s. Graduates from Cardiff undergraduate and masters degrees continue to go on to teach, practice, research and lead conservation programmes across the UK and internationally.
Who teaches the conservation degrees?
Conservation teaching is research led. The five strong conservation and conservation science team includes Professor Ian Freestone [link to each of the web pages please] a world leader in the study of early materials especially glass and ceramics; David Watkinson whose ground breaking research on the conservation and corrosion of archaeological iron has led to a cluster of awards; Jane Henderson who has published on collections care topics such as emergency planning and influence techniques, Panagiota Manti whose ground breaking investigation of copper alloy helmets and faience included the use of synchrotron radiation methods and neutron diffraction at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The teaching team is supplemented by the presence of Phil Parkes, senior conservator who conducts conservation work in the laboratory for museum, government bodies, archaeological units and private clients in the UK and internationally.
Conservation laboratories at Cardiff University
Students have direct access to many state of the art conservation and scientific facilities. Cardiff University's purpose-designed conservation laboratories include an analytical laboratory, x-radiography room, an objects laboratory, a teaching laboratory, and a specialist library. All laboratories underwent a £700,000, Science Research Investment Fund, refit which added a specialist wet wood area, a dedicated airbrasive room, a specialist microscope and recording room, scanning electron microscope facilities, photographic and digital imaging suite and a study collections resource room.
What will I learn on a Cardiff University Conservation degree?
Before students can begin to develop and apply knowledge, there are some underpinning facts and skills that anyone operating in a conservation environment needs to acquire: using microscopes, x-ray machines and scalpels; and how to follow a risk assessment and so on. In Cardiff University’s three year undergraduate degrees most of this information is taught in the first year. In the two year MSc programme in Conservation Practice this learning is condensed into one module. On completing this induction, the next task is to escalate the level of skills in line with the levels described in Icon’s novice to expert scale used for professional accreditation.
Students develop from entry level tasks such as cleaning surfaces with a range of solvents or operating several different mechanical cleaning processes on one item, to the intermediate phase of carrying out a process which involves more complex tasks where the application of knowledge is tested. For example, cleaning archaeological waterlogged leather where there is both mechanical and chemical cleaning and the requirement to learn about collagen, hydrogen bonding and materials for the preservation of the leather before devising a treatment plan.
The learning process progresses to higher levels such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation, where students feel most challenged. This requires: intellectual problem solving, making personal judgements based on available data, and systematically evaluating alternatives to select a solution from those competing alternatives.
Students of practical conservation degrees are encouraged to actively reflect on their own experience and learning in a reflective log known as a project note book. As students begin to evolve their own conservation approach, these notebooks provide an opportunity for them to record and reflect, maximising their learning experience.
A prerequisite for the conservation is an understanding of the structure, decay and properties of the materials from which objects and artefacts are fashioned. In order to formulate and execute ethical conservation procedures, conservators must also understand the adhesives, coatings, solvents, consolidants and fillers that are used to conserve objects. Understanding the structure and properties of materials requires a firm grasp of analytical science.