From 25-29 June 2018, Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences, TH Köln, hosted the third and final Summer School for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network ‘New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art’ (NACCA).

The week involved a two day symposium on the conservation of contemporary art From different perspectives to common grounds in contemporary art conservation, and three days of internal activities for the NACCA Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) and supervisors.

The two initial days of the week, 25th and 26th, were dedicated to the NACCA 2018 Symposium which gathered nearly two hundred members from different fields interested in the conservation of contemporary art. During these two days, five clusters were presented as central themes of the symposium sessions. Each cluster comprised five speakers, opening with two keynote speakers presentations, followed by three NACCA ESR papers, and closing with 20 minutes discussion panels.

The sessions comprised Intent, authorship, authentication with Marina Pugliese, Antonio Rava, Nina Quabeck, Maria Theodoraki, and Tomas Markevicius, and chaired by Erma Hermens; Production and reproduction with Ursula Schädler-Saub, Ulrich Lang, Sophie Lei, Marta García Celma, and Panda de Haan, chaired by Glenn E. Wharton; Challenging institutional conventions with Renate Buschmann, Johannes Gfeller, Artemis Rüstau, Claudia Röck, and Iona Goldie-Scot, chaired by Pip Laurenson; Musealisation with Salvador Muñoz Viñas, Hanna Hölling, Brian Castriota, Joanna Kiliszek, and Aga Wielocha, chaired by Renée van de Vall; and finally, Cross-disciplinary networks with Renata Peters, Caitlin Spangler-Bickell, Dušan Barok and Zoë Miller. The symposium was concluded with a tribute to Heinz Althöfer, a pioneer in the theory of contemporary art conservation, presented by Carlota Santabárbara Morera.

During the remaining three days of the Cologne summer school, researchers and supervisors collaborated in various sessions specially prepared to fit the needs of the ESRs, carefully taking in consideration and applying feedback collected from past NACCA Schools. The programme curated by Prof. Dr. Gunnar Heydenreich, introduced high quality sessions as well as space for developing and strengthen networks and relationships among all NACCA members.

The summer school program included feedback sessions, where the fifteen ESRs engaged in a peer review of draft chapters of their theses. These peer review sessions were undertaken in small groups of two or three supervisors together with three ESRs. The reseachers also received a session on didactics, in order to prepare them for a possible future in academia or education. Finally, Friday was dedicated to revising the Decision-Making Model for Contemporary Art Conservation, with a session developed by Gunnar Heydenreich, Julia Giebeler and Andrea Sartorius. This last session took the form of a group workshop, and involved an even larger network of specialists in contemporary art, including some of the curators, conservators, and art historians involved in the initial development of the Decision Making Model for Conservation in 1999, as well as other specialist and theorists in contemporary art conservation. This session re-evaluated the model and its efficiency when treating 21st Century artworks and provided a much-needed opportunity for discussing key terms used in the conservation of contemporary art.

In addition to the valuable theoretical and professional development sessions, the week also included cultural visits and activities which enhanced personal relationships between the group members. Among them, a visit to Cologne cathedral – Dom, a trip to Thomas Schütte Stiftung and Hombroich Museum, and few dinners in Cologne Südstadt.

This exciting week was successfully organised and executed thanks to the support of Diana Blumenroth, and concluded as the last NACCA School for ESRs and supervisors. The NACCA group will next be brought together for the program’s final conference, organised in conjunction with the Annual MACCH conference in Maastricht in 2019, where they can reflect on the results of a magnificent three years.

Marta Garcia Celma

The fifth NACCA event, the overall focus of which lay on gaining career-oriented skills, provided the researchers with workshops that will aid them in developing their future career, for instance a workshop on EU funding opportunities or an intense Bootcamp Lean Startup. It also provided an illustrative example of a conservator’s career, through the talk of Filipe Duarte, manager of the Serralves Collection. The session by artists Miguel Carvalhais and Rui Penha on artists’ points of view on the conservation of technology-based works, as well as the visit to the exhibition Mar Novo (FBAUP), with its discussions of decision-making regarding the display of damaged photographs by both a conservator and a curator, were welcome moments to discuss conservation problems in interdisciplinary settings.

Artemis Rüstau

To start off the programme, the ESRs presented their research projects to the EU representatives. The next day the representatives recapped the conditions of funding and evaluated the process. This was followed by a session on data management and a highly entertaining course on conflict resolution skills with Taylor Clarke, which granted new insights into communication and social behaviour. The day closed with a lecture by Ranald McInnes (Head of Special Projects, Historic Environment Scotland) on the rebuilding of the Mackintosh Building after its destruction in a fire in 2014, which concluded with a presentation by artist and reader Dr Ross Birrell and culminated in a screening of A Beautiful Living Thing (2015), Birrell’s moving film prompted by the calamity. The final day was marked by great intellectual activity. The feedback sessions resulted in a vivid exchange amongst supervisors and ESR’s on the research, stimulating new thoughts and confirming approaches. The summer school was rounded off with an invitation to ESRs to re-think and discuss the reconstruction of the Lichtballett “Hommage à New York” by Otto Piene along with Tiziana Caianielle (ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf).

Artemis Rüstau

The winterschool’s programme was tailored to introduce the researchers to the complexities of professional communication and collaboration. Designed to encourage reflection on perceptions of museum practices, all week the group considered how these are changed or still need to change. A focal point of the programme was the question whether the way in which conservation is perceived and communicated within a contemporary art museum needs to be changed and how this can be accomplished.

The group, on the very first day of the training event, had their first chance to present their work in progress to the public in a flash presentation followed by a poster presentation. A sold out event held at Tate Exchange, the presentation day provided an exciting opportunity for the NACCA researchers to mingle with and discuss their research ideas with professionals and members of the public.

The programme of the following days, curated by Tate’s Head of Collection Care Research, Pip Laurenson, introduced the group to an overview of the various avenues of communication within a museum. In a most thoughtful way, Tate’s staff members Anna Cutler, Judith Comyn, Jennifer Mundy, Christopher Griffin, Susanna Worth, Chloe Julius, Rachel Barker, Bronwyn Orsmby, Maria Kennedy and Matthew Gale all shared their expertise with the researchers. They devised interactive workshops on writing on contemporary art, tools for raising the profile of their research, object-based research, and transdisciplinary communication and collaboration. Other instructors lectured on exhibiting conservation (Sanneke Stigter, UVA and Ella Hendriks, Van Gogh Museum), analysing the professional force-fields in research (Julia Noordegraaf, UVA, with Pip Laurenson and Haidy Geismar, UCL), the parallels between the restoration of architecture and contemporary art (Maria Margarita Segarra Lagunes, Università degli Studi Roma Tre), and what it means to be a collector and keeper in the 21st century (Jill Sterrett, SFMOMA). Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Director of the Maxxi Arte in Rome, lectured on documentation versus re-enactment in performance art. NYU’s Glenn Wharton granted NACCA’s researchers and supervisors a preview and a discussion of his upcoming Reader for Contemporary Art Conservation.

Also, the group was privileged to a partake in a unique experience, the performance Tony Conrad: Fifty Five Years On the Infinite Plain at The Tanks, Tate Modern, and a follow-up discussion with Tate’s team exploring ways to transition this piece into the collection.
This exciting programme, set in the stunning Switch House, provided the PhD researchers with great opportunities to exchange ideas with experienced colleagues and imminent scholars of the field.

Nina Quabeck

From 11-15 July 2016, the fifteen PhD researchers involved in the NACCA (New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art) project met for their second training event hosted by the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

As with each of the scheduled events, the week’s teaching content was curated to complement the students’ current position in their research trajectories. In line with the diverse backgrounds and focus of the PhD candidates, the training programme covered a medley of topics, including an introduction to UM’s model of Problem Based Learning; the process of artist’s interviews; research ethics; and various insights into documentation methods. The group was able to attend behind-the-scene tours of the conservation studios at the Stedelijk Museum and Rijksmuseum as well as the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency laboratories. Moreover, they were privileged to receive guest lectures from a number of experts in the field, including Maarten van Bommel, UVA; Gunnar Heydenreich of Cologne University of the Arts and Joanna Philips from the Guggenheim Museum in New York; Gaby Wijers of LiMA; and Erma Hermens and Robert van Langh of the Rijksmuseum, to name just a few.

The week concluded with a presentation by Dušan Barok and Julia Noordegraaf, UvA, in which they announced the launch of the NACCA project database and website, part of Dušan’s own PhD project.

For more information about NACCA, contact the project manager Sarah Melker.

Iona Goldie-Scot

From 25-29 January, Maastricht University hosted the first Winter School for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network ‘New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art‘ (NACCA). Fifteen doctoral students and their supervisors gathered at FASoS for a tailor-made, five-day training event.

At the Winter School, the NACCA PhDs attended lectures and seminars on the history, theory and concepts of contemporary art and art conservation. They were trained in general academic skills, research methodology, ethics, and data management. In addition to attending lectures and seminars, the participants visited the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht and Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg, a leading insititute specialised in the conservation and restoration of paintings, sculptures, and modern and contemporary artworks.

The NACCA programme is coordinated by Maastricht University and funded by the European Union. The 15 PhD projects that are part of the programme will each investigate a different, as yet under-explored aspect of contemporary art conservation.

For more information about NACCA , please contact the project manager Sarah Melker.

Charlotte van Emstede