The following is an outline on the workshops currently available for the professional development of museum staff and volunteers. Victoria Gill BA (Fine Arts) Hons. BAppSc (Conservation) has lectured at Universities and been running adult teaching workshops for the past 10 years. These specific workshops include presentations, practical demonstrations and directed discussions specific to the concerns of the participants. Each workshop runs for a full day and follow on sessions can be designed.

Storage materials, their selection and appropriate use

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the need for acid free materials or buffered board. Little thought has been given to the materials for which they will actually do damage. This workshop looks at materials used for packing handling and storing materials. We will un-pack the jargon and examine what buffered really means and when we should use it. This workshop covers packing and handling protocols and asks participants to examine their own practices with the aim of updating entrenched practices, which may now be out of date. Participants are given notes and supporting material. All day workshop with notes and hands on training. $330 per person. A maximum of 10 people can book this workshop in one session. If your institution has a large number of attendees we can repeat the workshop or bring it to you.

Preventative Conservation

Prevention is better than cure and cheaper too. Many National institutions now have a full time preventative conservators. For those institutions, which don’t have a team of conservators, it falls to the custodians of the collection to carry out this role. Preventative conservation is a new and rapidly growing field where it is difficult for non-conservators to keep up. This workshop is designed to de-mystify the tasks and the reasons for monitoring humidity, lighting, environmental conditions and dust in store and on display. And once this data is collected what does it all mean really and what are the risks really? This workshop is developed to remove the scare mongering and replace it with information to enable sound and cost saving management of a collection by all of the team involved in the collection. All day workshop with notes and hands on training. $330 per person. A maximum of 10 people can book this workshop in one session. If your institution has a large number of attendees we can repeat the workshop or bring it to you.

Inpainting Workshop

Qualified in Fine Art and an Art and design lecturer prior to becoming a conservator, Victoria has specialist knowledge relevant to conservators, which is rarely passed on to conservators about the use of modern materials and products. There are rules, tips and methods which will help any level of inpainter increase their skills in this area.

The course will look at the properties of acrylic paint and the technical skills to colour match accurately. Special emphasis will be given to the additives, which will allow a conservator to not only match colour, but texture, gloss, transparency etc to inpaint match losses in ceramic glazes, stone and even basketry. Attendees will receive a set of lecture notes.
The cost will be $220 this includes materials and lunch is provided. For a full days training on Oct 23rd 2006, at the Duffy lab to book 02 62871291
A maximum of 10 people can book this workshop in one session. If your institution has a large number of attendees we can repeat the workshop or bring it to you.

Art Appreciation

Artists and makers have always been outside the mainstream with recipes, concoctions and ways of working entrenched in secrecy. The divide has never been greater in history than now. Art enriches our lives but only if we understand the journey of the maker. This workshop gives an overview of the history of human cultural manufacture. Giving participants the clues necessary to correctly identify the art they are looking at, for instance the difference between an Ikat and a Shabori, or the difference between an engraving and an etching. The course costs $330 a person, with a minimum of ten people in attendance. This course is of great value to anyone wishing enhance their connoisseurship of the arts.

Collection Management

This course highlights the issues associated with best practice collection management, its practices and principles. Value is added to your objects and collections through the quality and range of data collected. The course costs $330 per person. A maximum of 10 people can book this workshop in one session.