Adieu 2019!
Wow, where has this year gone? What a stellar year it has been for the University of Canberra and the Heritage Lab. As usual the Heritage Lab has been busy with students taking their classes, learning about the wonderful world of materials conservation and busily coming into the lab outside class time to put in the hours to complete treatments on their project objects.
This semester saw a variety of objects being treated in the lab; books and paintings seem to be the objects du jour, but vintage dolls seem to be popular too.
Doll before treatment—Maren Innes
Doll after treatment—Maren Innes
Paper items are always a perennial in the Heritage Lab but this semester there was an appearance of a taxidermied native rat in need of repair to its tail and a mysterious polymer boat. The open lab policy of the Heritage Lab has been beneficial in allowing students to practise their bench skills while at the same time building a knowledge-sharing environment within the cohort.
Before treatment—Maddy Fern
After treatment—Maddy Fern
As the dust settles from the end of Semester 2, we would like to congratulate all the conservation students who have completed their final assignments and will be graduating this year. The world is your oyster! To find out about what our graduates have been up to head on to the UC Arts Design website and search for Heritage, Museums and Conservation in the drop-down menu.
Honours students Lisa Russ and Jacinta Sanders have also completed their conservation-based honours research projects: a conservation management plan and analysis of carpet samples at Parliament House and a feasibility study on the Pleco Pen, which some of you have had the privilege to see upfront at the recent AICCM National Conference in Melbourne. We would like to congratulate them on what has been a challenging and enlightening year for them. Can’t wait to see what they do next.
The Heritage Lab bids a fond farewell to Lab Intern Maddy Fern, who has been wonderful in helping make the lab a safer space to learn and in her efforts in rehousing a collection of Indigenous beaded necklaces. But fret not, Maddy will be continuing her studies with us in the Master of Creative and Cultural Futures.
Congratulations are also due to Rebecca Negri-Lewis who won the AICCM Student of the Year and to Dr Alison Wain for recently receiving the University of Canberra’s Early Career Research Award.
As the year and indeed the decade comes to an end, the UC Heritage Lab would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! and of course Festivus for the rest of us! Have a wonderful holiday!