Sharing Stories on Contested Histories
How do contemporary museums deal with the presence of multiple and sometimes opposing views on their collections? How do they allow communities to share their stories with audiences who may have radically different readings of the same historical events? How can they respond to political and cultural concerns to mobilise social change? During the training Sharing Stories on Contested Histories, 24 young professionals from around the world will come together in 2022 to discuss these questions. The RCE jointly organizes this training with the Reinwardt Academy.
In 2023, the RCE and the Reinwardt Academy organize a diplomat-edition (first quarter) and a regular edition (fourth quarter)
Brochures on Paintings Conservation
In 2022, the Foundation for Cultural Inventory (SCI), SRAL - The Conservation Institute and RCE will publish a series of six brochures on Paintings Conservation. These are created conservators of easel paintings, wishing to keep up with current knowledge, and learning how to apply new techniques in their field.
Knowledge exchange
These six brochures were compiled to serve as a reference, bringing together current practices and new knowledge regarding materials and methods for practical use. The content provided can be used by professional conservators, who are aware of the ethical and contextual aspects and complexity of conservation decision-making.
Conservation knowledge and practice are developing at an increasingly fast pace. In many countries, this knowledge is often concentrated within a relatively small group of conservators and other professionals in larger institutions with the resources to take major steps in the development and application of new methods for preservation and treatment of paintings. New publications on focus topics are often issued through journals or editions that are costly and not easily available to the conservation field. Thus, accessing such knowledge and integrating into practice can be challenging. These brochures are designed to help bridge this gap. They are also a tool for mid-career professional conservators seeking to refresh and update their knowledge. The content is intended as a snapshot of up-to-date developments in these six focus areas and should not replace academic training in the field of painting conservation.
The need for this reference material became apparent during a series of masterclasses and conferences, organized in the period 2012-2020 by SCI in India, Russia and Cuba. These gatherings, focusing on mutual exchange and deepening knowledge in relation to the local contexts, were organized in association with SRAL - The Conservation Institute, the RCE, and Dutch embassies in the partner countries of the International Heritage Cooperation programme.
The brochures in this series on conservation are:
- Dirt and Dirt Removal
- Varnish Removal
- Consolidation of Flaking Paint (expected)
- Filling Losses in Paint (expected)
- Structural Conservation of Canvas and Panels (expected)
- Varnishing and Inpainting
Museum Intensive Sri Lanka
The Museum Intensive (MI), a 5-day museum training programme, was successfully held between 24–28 October 2022 at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka and John Keells X co-working and accelerator space. The MI programme was the culmination of a year-long collaboration between the MMCA Sri Lanka, the Reinwardt Academy, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. The programme was supported by the Dutch embassy in Sri Lanka.
The MI was attended by participants from all over Sri Lanka who work in institutions or organisations that own collections of art or who deliver public programmes as part of their exhibition activities. MI brought together museum professionals from the private and public sector, which was a rare, and far-reaching achievement for building public/private partnerships between two sectors that usually never come together in Sri Lanka.
Cooperation between Morocco and the Netherlands
At the beginning of April 2022, DutchCulture organised the first inception mission to Morocco. The Moroccan partner, the Fondation Nationale de Musées du Maroc, aims to modernise the museum world in Morocco according to the applicable international standards, and to create museums that present the "Moroccan heritage to the Moroccan people and the world". Representatives of DutchCulture, the Reinwardt Academy, the Dutch embassy in Rabat, and the RCE visited various museums and met with museum professionals to identify the needs for exchange and capacity-building projects. Representatives of the Fondation Nationale des Musées then came to the Netherlands as part of a DutchCulture visitors' programme, where they visited various Dutch museums and institutions. In December 2022, this was followed by an exchange week for Moroccan museum professionals in Amsterdam and Rabat.
See the website of DutchCulture for more information about this visitors' programme, the participants, and the collaboration with Morocco.
