Update on textile conservation centre at the University of Glasgow

Update on the new Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art
History at the University of Glasgow, UK

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Following the closure of the Textile Conservation Centre in October
2009 by the University of Southampton, The Textile Conservation
Centre Foundation and the University of Glasgow agreed to found a
new teaching and research facility, The Centre for Textile
Conservation and Technical Art History, the only resource of its
kind in the UK.  This update gives the latest news on the
development of the new Centre.

Three members of staff have recently been appointed to the new
Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History at the
University of Glasgow and took up their posts in August: Frances
Lennard, Dr Anita Quye and Sarah Foskett. They are joining Dr Erma
Hermens from History of Art.

Erma Hermens leads the Technical Art History strand of the Centre
and is the Convenor of the MLitt programme Making and Meaning:
Approaches in Technical Art History. Trained as a paintings
conservator and with a PhD in the history of art from Leiden
University, she has organised several international symposia in this
interdisciplinary field. She is chief editor of the new on-line
edition of ArtMatters: International Journal for Technical Art
History, funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and to be launched
this autumn.

Frances Lennard leads the Textile Conservation strand and convenes
the MPhil Textile Conservation programme which is beginning in
September 2010 with a full cohort of students from the UK and
overseas. Until 2009 she was Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader of
the MA Textile Conservation at the Textile Conservation Centre
(TCC), University of Southampton. Frances has just completed a major
collaborative project on tapestry degradation, funded by the Arts
and Humanities Research Council.  She has recently published a new
book for Elsevier, Textile Conservation: Advances in Practice,
co-edited with Patricia Ewer.

Anita Quye has been appointed Lecturer in Conservation Science and
works with both Textile Conservation and Technical Art History. She
was previously Principal Conservation Scientist in the Department of
Conservation and Analytical Science at the National Museums
Scotland. Anita has a wealth of experience working as a conservation
scientist within museums and working collaboratively on research
projects with institutions worldwide. Her main area of research to
date has been in historic textiles and modern materials analysis.

Sarah Foskett is the Textile Conservation Tutor. She is from Glasgow
Museums where she has been a textile conservator working on the
Burrell Collection Tapestry Project. Before that Sarah was a textile
conservator at the National Museums Scotland from 1995 to 2008. She
trained at the TCC at Hampton Court Palace. Sarah is an accredited
member of the Institute of Conservation and a committee member of
the June Baker Trust.

New premises are being made ready for the Centre on Level 3 of the
University's Roberston Building that will be shared by students on
the textile conservation and technical art history programmes.

Object-based, interdisciplinary research will be an important aspect
of the new Centre which will bring together existing areas of
expertise in conservation and technical art history. Glasgow's
History of Art department, in collaboration with the TCC Foundation,
has been awarded almost UKP100,000, over two years, by the Getty
Foundation, to fund a Research Network in Textile Conservation,
Dress and Textile History and Technical Art History. Frances Lennard
and Erma Hermens will launch this international network in January
2011 with the aim of creating new collaborative research projects.

There are opportunities for PhD study in all subject areas covered
by the new Centre, the first PhD students in textile conservation
and dress history will begin their research in September 2010,
joining several PhDs in Technical Art History.

Such has been the demand for the Textile Conservation programme and
PhD places, it has been decided that the centre will not launch a
third Masters programme, MLitt Dress and Textile Histories, until
September 2011.  The development of this programme is being led by
Liz Hancock from History of Art, whose specialist areas of interest
are decorative arts and design history, particularly furniture and
furnishing textiles. The first students will begin on this programme
in September 2011 and will share some teaching with the textile
conservation students.

Students on all three programmes will gain enormously from the
involvement of staff from Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland
and other institutions within Scotland, and will have the
opportunity to work with collections from local museums, including
the University's own Hunterian Museum.

Those interested to know more about the Masters courses and PhD
opportunities should email Ailsa Boyd
<a.boyd<-at->arthist<.>arts<.>gla<.>ac<.>uk> at the University of Glasgow

Funds to support this exciting new development are being raised by
the TCC Foundation.  The Foundation's fundraising campaign, led by
Nell Hoare, started in February 2010 and is already within UKP60,000
of its UKP650,000 target.  If you would like to know more about the
campaign and would like to support the fundraising effort please
contact Nell at info<-at->tccfoundation<.>org<.>uk.

Further information:

    Martin Shannon
    Senior Media Relations Officer
    University of Glasgow
    +44 141 330 8593

The University of Glasgow's Department of History of Art is one of
the largest in the UK and was the highest rated in the UK in the
2008 Research Assessment exercise (RAE) with 85% of its research
being considered either internationally excellent or world leading.
The Department's research and teaching profile includes all the
major European art historical periods but is also strong in
decorative art and design history, sculpture, the arts of China and
technical art history. It also has a strong track record in
collaborative research projects and exhibition curation. The
Department has considerable experience of initiating, funding and
managing art history research and database projects, including the
National Inventory Research Project into European Paintings, Mapping
Sculpture, 1850-1950 and Whistler Etchings.

The TCC Foundation exists to support textile conservation research
and education in the UK. From 1975-1998 this took the form of
running the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC), then based at Hampton
Court Palace.  In 1998 the TCC merged with the University of
Southampton and the Foundation's role became to support the work of
the University at its Winchester campus.

The University of Southampton's decision to close the Textile
Conservation Centre on 31 October 2009 was met with international
concern and, as a result, it was no longer possible to train as a
textile conservator in the UK.  The Foundation has been in
discussion with a number of academic bodies  about a possible future
for the TCC's work over the past two years, and its Trustees are
delighted with this outcome.

Frances Lennard
Senior Lecturer, Textile Conservation
Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History
School of Culture and Creative Arts
The University of Glasgow
8 University Gardens
Glasgow G12 8QH
United Kingdom
+44 141 330 7497/4097
Fax: +44 141 330 3513


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:15
                 Distributed: Monday, September 6, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-24-15-001
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