Well, my country is not in the list, but I decided to add our organization to the list.
It is called Association of the Conservators in Bulgaria. It was found in 2003 and at the moment has about 50 members. Hopefully we will have our website published soon.

Hello, my name is Comba and I´ve been working in Portugal and Spain, two really diferent countries, and really simillar too. The situation in Portugal you already know, there is the Associação de Conservadores-Restauradores de Portugal, but in Spain is a total chaos. As we have 17 different Autonomías, (kind of States, or Departments, with different cultures, economies, government, and laws) each one of them has its own Association... In Galicia we have Arcobéns, but for example in Catalunya there are two of them, and maybe in other comunities too. It has been an attempt of making a Spanish Association, but it was impossible to get an agreement... (this happened some years ago, we have different problems now...) There isn´t a great comunication among all regional groups... As you can see, it´s a really sad situation, so we can´t improve the professional situation of the Restorers as they do, for example, in Portugal

Hello!
Our web-side is finally online. It could be reached at http://www.arbbg.org There is a choice between Bulgarian and English at the top right (under the header).
The first issue of our Newsletter (also in Bulgarian and English) could be downoaded from the site
Greetings,
Krassy

Hello Teodora,
Thank you for the nice words. I would love to present our organization and will do my best to fit in the deadlines.
For the moment we have planned a second issue which should (hopefully) be ready by the end of May. I also hope we would be able to post a third issue by the end of the year.
Greetings,
Krassy

I have been working in Greece and abroad for the past five-six years and i consider my self well connected concerning conservation circles in Greece, most of which are concentrated in Athens, but not all. As far as i am aware (and i hope mistakenly) the only conservators organisation in Greece is the IIC section (i just checked their website in order to post it but he one i have is expired) which is quite autonomous from the British one. Yet they are far off the deadlines concerning the production of a newsletter (1 every two years or so...) and generally not active in comparison to other iic chapters.

There is also an assosiation for for the Conservation Teachers in Greece. yet they do not have a website, and i am not a member to provide further information on this.

We also have the Addressing for Conservation Issues of the Ministry of culture (Διεύθυνση Συντήρησης του Υπ.Πο, http://www.yppo.gr/1/g1540.jsp?obj_id=2594#, sadly the english link is not working currently), but that is more of an administrative unit, rather than an association.

Now furthermore there are chapters of ICOMOS and ICOM and a rather active Museologist association but that is restricted to museum studies MA diploma holders and not conservators.

This is the situation i can describe in Greece, from my point of view and information resources.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions on the matter,

Aristotelis

Aristotelis,
Thank you for your feedback. I really thought there was some association of professional conservators, pity there isn’t. In any case, it is the first time I hear of an association of Conservation teachers, which is very interesting. Are there in Greece so many teachers (and schools) as to make their own association?
Concerning the IIC, each national association it’s kind of independent so I guess it is normal if some are more active and others aren’t.


Evangelia,
Welcome to the forum and thank you for the info. I am not quite sure of what vocational training centers are in Greece. At what academic level are those centers? I tried to check the website you provided but I couldn’t find any English version.

What I ment by vocational centres in Greece are the so-called IEK (Ινστιτούτο Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης) - the exact translation from greek is Institute of Professional Education. There are two kinds of IEK, private ones and state ones. The training lasts two years, divided into two semesters per year. High school graduates may enrol into the IEK and after passing several exams periods, they are asked to give some more exams, state ones this time, after which they get the certificate of 'conservation technician'. There usually are two kinds of IEK, 'conservation technician of works of art' and 'conservation technician of paintings'.

Apart from the IEK, there also are the so called KEK (Κέντρο Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης) - Centre of Professional Training. These are seminars for unemployed people that last a few months. Unemployed people are actually paid to attend these seminars, in an attempt of the greek state to provide some professional training as well as a symbolic financial assistance to unemployed people. The Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest has its own KEK, training unemployed people on the conservation of fossilised trees. Until now, the KEK of the Natural History Museum has organised five 400-hours seminars, which included both theory and practice. At the moment, four of the people who attended the last KEK work for the conservation department of the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest.