The world's conservation community has reacted with shock and anger to the news that the Textile Conservation Centre at Southampton University is to close in 2009 (Museums Journal December 2007, p4).
If such a centre of excellence is apparently not viable within the financial model used by universities, how secure can other conservation courses be?
Could a new partnership between universities and employers be part of the solution? The Institute of Conservation (Icon), the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) and the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) will be addressing these questions in a series of three linked events that will take place this year, all focusing on different aspects of education and the conservation workforce.
The first event, held at Tate Modern last month, brought together more than 80 representatives of conservation in museums, galleries, libraries and archives and the private sector to explore what the future conservation workforce will need to look like, and the potential role that museums, as conservation employers, can play in delivering it.
The consensus of the meeting was that employers need to take on a more active role in the training of the future conservation workforce. Icon is pleased that the recent McMaster review for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport speaks in similar terms.
We now need to begin work on an examination of how a closer partnership between museums and universities can help deliver the future conservation workforce we need in terms of understanding and skills, as well as making the teaching of conservation in universities more sustainable given the market pressures it is up against.
The second meeting, an international summit organised by the TCC, asks what future there is for conservation education and research in universities in the UK and how it can best be secured. It will take place this summer.
There will be a third session at the IIC Congress in September when delegates from around the world will come to London to consider the future of conservation education and the respective roles of universities and of employers on an international level.
The TCC, like most of our graduate conservation programmes, has a high proportion of international students. It not only serves our home needs, it trains conservators who return to their home countries and help raise standards there.
It not only contributes to our invisible exports, it plays an important role in our cultural diplomacy, which the government says is a high priority.
Whatever the internal issues in Southampton University, the closure of the centre will hinder our ability to preserve our own heritage and will be a major own-goal for the UK on the international stage.
Alastair McCapra is the chief executive of the Institute of Conservation
If such a centre of excellence is apparently not viable within the financial model used by universities, how secure can other conservation courses be?
Could a new partnership between universities and employers be part of the solution? The Institute of Conservation (Icon), the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) and the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) will be addressing these questions in a series of three linked events that will take place this year, all focusing on different aspects of education and the conservation workforce.
The first event, held at Tate Modern last month, brought together more than 80 representatives of conservation in museums, galleries, libraries and archives and the private sector to explore what the future conservation workforce will need to look like, and the potential role that museums, as conservation employers, can play in delivering it.
The consensus of the meeting was that employers need to take on a more active role in the training of the future conservation workforce. Icon is pleased that the recent McMaster review for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport speaks in similar terms.
We now need to begin work on an examination of how a closer partnership between museums and universities can help deliver the future conservation workforce we need in terms of understanding and skills, as well as making the teaching of conservation in universities more sustainable given the market pressures it is up against.
The second meeting, an international summit organised by the TCC, asks what future there is for conservation education and research in universities in the UK and how it can best be secured. It will take place this summer.
There will be a third session at the IIC Congress in September when delegates from around the world will come to London to consider the future of conservation education and the respective roles of universities and of employers on an international level.
The TCC, like most of our graduate conservation programmes, has a high proportion of international students. It not only serves our home needs, it trains conservators who return to their home countries and help raise standards there.
It not only contributes to our invisible exports, it plays an important role in our cultural diplomacy, which the government says is a high priority.
Whatever the internal issues in Southampton University, the closure of the centre will hinder our ability to preserve our own heritage and will be a major own-goal for the UK on the international stage.
Alastair McCapra is the chief executive of the Institute of Conservation
