Conservation

After floundering for some time when I finished university (and by some time I mean about 5 years spent working mostly in bookshops) I finally decided a couple of years ago that what I'd like to do with my life is to be a conservator of textiles.

After some fairly lengthy research I discovered that the usual way this happens is through a period of postgraduate study and I decided to visit and subsequently apply to The Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) at Winchester School of Art to begin study in September 2008, unfortunately this happened and for now and indefinitely there will be no home for the TCC, this is rubbish, and a number of other people think so too, owing to the large amount of signatures (3,240 and counting) on this petition to the Prime Minister to stop it's closure.

Well, I was crestfallen on finding this out last year but decided to apply to the Royal College of Art (RCA) to their conservation MA, which had a number of places specialising in various types of Textiles Conservation and was linked to the V&A, and then, again, unfortunately, this happened.

There is now nowhere in this country to study Textiles Conservation at Masters level, which is completely and utterly rubbish, it seems that right now is the single worst period of time to be trying to start out as a textile conservator.

However, I seem to be undeterred, I have been in contact with several organisations and museum services and I am hoping to visit the conservation rooms of The Hampshire Museums Service next week with a view to potential work experience, and I am also going to visit the textiles collection at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) with a view to more work experience, both of which have come about purely through the kindness of current practitioners, and for which I feel very lucky.

I am also waiting to see which specialisms will be represented in the Heritage Lottery Fund internships presented in association with the Institute for Conservation (ICON) when they are announced in April.

All in all, a little bit of a tricky situation, but not so full of despair as it might be, little glimmers of hope provided thanks to the niceness of people I don't even know!