September 2012
Heritage Without Borders (HWB) in partnership with Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB) organised a conservation training course in Tirana, Albania, funded by the Headley Trust.
Final group picture. All together with certificates!
Proposed Aims:
- Train museum staff from across the South Balkans in basic conservation skills
- Improve storage conditions in host museum
- Assess future conservation training needs in South Balkans
- Build heritage networks and professional contacts across the South Balkans
- Provide ongoing support for museum staff wanting to drive improvements in collections care in their own museums
The proposed aims were achieved through the implementation of a specially designed and organized school and through discussion with heritage professionals from the Balkans. The project was delivered in partnership with Cultural Heritage Without Borders in Tirana and facilitated by The National History Museum of Albania, The Institute of Albanology, The Institute for Cultural Monuments and The State Archives, all of which are in Tirana. The school was designed to provide basic preventive conservation to 20 + heritage professionals through organized lectures, discussions, group activities and tours within a 1 week time span, across 4 different sites in Tirana. The organization of the school was very successful and lectures, discussions, practical activities and tours were noted by participants as strengths of the course.
25-27 heritage professionals and students from Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo attended the Conservation Summer School. As the level of prior conservation knowledge among the participants varied, the school achieved an effective exchange of knowledge and expertise through discussion, group activities and participant presentations. The school delivered effective training in Preventive Conservation with a focus on agents of decay that included Light, Relative Humidity, Pollution, Pests, Handling, and Storage. Participants also learned how to identify material deterioration, to write professional condition reports and carry out condition surveys of the large collections with the use of a Conservation Condition Survey Tool, which was supplied to each participant.
The participants remain in ongoing communication with their peers and trainers through social networks, and they share their findings through online collaboration tools.
