Accreditation

Following on from Deborah Rohan's posting in regard to Mario Galea's
plight, I have a different focus on the problem, but a similar point
to make, none the less.

Recently when the IPC started it's accreditation ball rolling a
colleague who, like me, is a member (and his father before him)
approached the IPC and asked how accreditation would affect framer
members. In my view he got short shrift.

Framers cannot in the foreseeable future be accredited in any way,
according to the IPC's Framer's Liaison Officer. It was suggested
that my colleague get a degree in conservation, which would involve
closing his business down for three years in this instance!

I understand that many conservators work in academic environments,
and also that many have to deal with works of art that have been
poorly framed, thus their opinion of unqualified framers may well be
coloured by experience.  However it is the mission of some of us in
framing to create an establishment of framers who can be trusted to
work on art on paper or otherwise, using methods and materials which
are acceptable to conservators. If you like, they would be
technicians working with conservators.

However, as things currently stand, I can see it difficult for
framers to describe their work as of preservation or conservation
standard.

Thus accreditation creates a circumstance where the contribution of
a newly qualified graduate in conservation, has more value than a
framer of 20-30 years experience,--this is not meant to be
derogatory. I feel that in the case of time served conservators and
others, without degrees who do not match up to the rigours of
examination by those that do, there needs to be something that they
can do, perhaps on a part time level to save their livelihood.

Stephen Todd
frameconnews mailing list moderator

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:11
                   Distributed: Friday, July 30, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-13-11-006
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