2023 Training Course for Museum Curators in Charge of Conservation (Advanced Course)
The “Training Course for Museum Curators in Charge of Conservation (Advanced Course) in 2023” was held from July 10 to 14, 2023. This training course, which has been held at the Institute since 1984, was reorganized into a “Basic Course” and an “Advanced Course” in 2021, with the aim of enabling curators in charge of conservation at museums to acquire a wide range of knowledge and skills necessary for their work, from basic to advanced.
The “Basic Course” is designed to provide curators in charge of the conservation of materials at museums with a wide range of knowledge and skills, from the basics to the practical. The course focuses on the conservation environment and is conducted by the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties.
The “Advanced Course” covers not only the conservation environment, but also general conservation of cultural properties, and is conducted by the Center for Conservation Science. In the 2023 Advanced Course, lectures and practical training based on research results in various research fields were conducted by the Center for Conservation Science, and lectures on the conservation and restoration of various cultural properties were provided by external lecturers. On the first day, a tour of the center was conducted. The themes of the lectures and practical training were as follows:
・Theory of restoration of cultural properties
・Scientific investigation of cultural properties
・Air quality (about air quality / effects of air pollution on cultural properties / concepts of air quality improvement and ventilation)
・Theory and practice of storage environment (air conditioning)
・Introduction and practice of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for cultural properties
・Types and characteristics of restoration materials
・Deterioration and conservation of outdoor materials
・Protection of heritage of modernization
・Conservation and restoration of various cultural properties (rescue of cultural properties / environmental management of temporary storage facilities / daily cultural heritage disaster prevention in museums)
・Disaster prevention in museums
・Conservation and restoration of folk artifacts
・Preservation of large volumes of documents, and countermeasures against deterioration
・Conservation and restoration of works on paper
・Preservation and management of photographs
A post-training questionnaire indicated a high level of satisfaction throughout the training. Some participants commented that they were able to gain practical knowledge in a systematic manner and that they were stimulated by learning about cutting-edge research. On the other hand, we also received some comments that they would like more time for training and some requested future follow-up. We will continue to review the content of the training to ensure that it is beneficial to curators in charge of conservation.
Last year, due to restrictions imposed for protection from the spread of COVID-19, the number of participants was only 18, but this year there were 30 participants, as the infection situation had calmed down somewhat.
Although the participants come from a wide variety of institutions, they all share similar concerns and awareness of the problems they face in the field, and we believe that the exchange of ideas and opinions among the participants is very meaningful. We hope that the networking that participants were able to take part in during this training will also be useful in the future.