New challenges for frames conservation in Australia: a pragmatic vision of future hands-on training

Abstract

Frames conservation is based as strongly on materials science and technical art history as on practical art and craft skills. Few conservation training courses prepare students for future work as a gilded/polychrome objects conservator, which also includes the role of a frame conservator. Preventive conservation and collection management activities are prioritised in institutions, and consequently are seen as progress of the profession impacting education and training of conservation students, diminishing the importance of hands-on practical training. The specialised conservation training gave the space to the cross-disciplinary knowledge and development of ‘general conservator’ skills. Shifting trends in cultural institutions and in conservation profession endangers the high-level conservation skills and undermine prospects to undertake future complex interventions. With a generation of senior conservators reaching retirement, it is inevitable tthe opportunities to learn the necessary skills for high-level hands-on conservation will be lost. Partnership and collaboration between the universities and the cultural institutions are proposed in defining the structured hands-on training of future conservators, particularly frames conservators. Through close partnership with universities, and by engaging in the education of future conservators, cultural institutions could take on an active role in promoting conservation to the community, while assuring that the collections will be appropriately treated.