EU project: Ethics and Ethnographic Objects Conservation

A group of students, teachers and specialists in the field of ethnography has worked together in order to develop an interdisciplinary methodology for the conservation of ethnographic objects.
Together they have developed an ethical framework to discuss the complex issues that occur when confronted with the analysis and treatment of these objects. The students have also learnt to assess the risks for these kinds of collections and what kind of decisions can be made to reduce those risks. Teachers and students have learnt to work with and further develop the didactic concept of ‘communities of inquiry’.

The target groups for this Intensive Programme (IT) were conservation students, (conservation) science students, anthropology students or other professions from the field of ethnology. The objectives of this IP was reached by lectures, interdisciplinary working groups, discussions, case-studies, student presentations and excursions.

The universities involved will develop better ways of joint teaching the subject of ethnographic conservation and sharing their resources. An expected outcome of this IP is a more systematic approach towards ethnographic collections. When this approach is fully developed and tested (which we hope to achieve in the coming three years) this will result into an e-learning course of the Hornemann Institute with a web based communication platform about this subject.

Our partners are:
EVTEK Institute of Art and Design, Vantaa, Finland
Instituut Collectie Nederland (part of the University of Amsterdam)