ORGANISATIONS > Conservation Organisations in Europe 1177

 

ARP - Associação Profissional de Conservadores-restauradores de Portugal

- Professional Association of Conservators-Restorers of Portugal
by André Varela Remígio

Website: www.arp.org.pt
Contact: mail@arp.org.pt

- Established in 1995 - 13 specialisations - 165 members - 5 membership categories - Access to university graduates only - Member of E.C.C.O.

 

 

Introduction to Conservation and Restoration in Portugal

One of the first records of a restoration intervention in Portugal dates back to 1890 when the painter Manuel de Moura restored the XVIth century Flemish panel Fons Vitae. In 1896, the chemical engineer Charles Lepierre examined some cloth fragments found on a bishop tomb located on the Saint Mary Cathedral at Coimbra, starting in this way the scientific study of works of art in Portugal.
In 1911, the then Director of the National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA), José de Figueiredo established a restoration studio at the museum and invited the painter and Fine Arts professor Luciano Freire for the restoration of the museum artworks.
In 1940, the same museum erected a building to house the Laboratory for Examination and Restoration of Works of Art. This building was one of the first in the world for that purpose.

In 1965, the Laboratory is given autonomy and the José de Figueiredo Institute (IJF) is created with the objective to treat movable cultural and artistic assets own by the state, to assure research and to promote conservation and restoration.

Training in Conservation and Restoration in Portugal

In 1980, the decree-law nº 245/80 established the definition of the carriers on conservation and restoration. This led the State to create a training course in this field. The course was established at IJF and at the Conímbriga Museum. This course, however, had no correspondence to the education system, which made the carriers in conservation to have an indeterminate state. In this context, the Ministry of Culture substituted this internal training model by another one integrated in the national Higher Education system, creating the Higher School of Conservation and Restoration (ESCR) at Lisbon and a 4-years “bacharelato”. The same degree, but of 3-years duration, was also created at the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (IPT).
Established in 1998, the European Network for Conservation-Restoration Education (ENCoRE) had ESCR as a founding member.
In 1998, the New University of Lisbon (UNL) assimilated ESCR’s course, transforming it into a 5-years “Licenciatura”. In the same year, IPT also established the same degree. Only then Portugal met the conditions that so many international documents defended, such as the one of Pavia, with the existence of higher education in conservation and restoration.
In 2001, the third “Licenciatura” course opened at the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP), at Porto. With the PhD in Conservation at UNL and UCP, Portugal fulfils the most restrictive European guidelines.

ARP

The need to create a professional association of conservator-restorers in Portugal came with the graduation of the first bachelors (bacharéis) in 1993 and the existence of some conservator-restorers trained abroad. Thus, in 1995, ARP was created.
ARP has as main objectives the defence and promotion of the professional statute of the conservator-restorer in Portugal and  the protection and safeguarding of Cultural Heritage. Since its creation, ARP has adopted and defended the definition of the
conservator-restorer profession of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers' Organisation (E.C.C.O.) professional guidelines and directives.
The defence and promotion of the training in Conservation and Restoration in Portugal at the highest level has been one of ARP’s top priorities. Thus, two years after its creation, ARP approved new statutes in order to regulate the admission of members in the benefit of those with higher education training specifically in conservation and restoration. After the creation of the “Licenciatura” degree in conservation and restoration in 1998, ARP started to accept only these graduates or those with a bachelor obtained previous to this date.

Although it is the only conservation association and is recognized institutionally by the State and by cultural institutions, ARP is an association of private law. This implies that it is not mandatory for a conservator-restorer to be member of ARP to be able to work in this field. The association has now 163 members from which 151 are professionals and 12 are university students. From the professional members, 69 have the old bachelor degree, 81 the “Licenciatura” degree, and 1 has a PhD; at the moment, there are also 9 bachelors attending the “Licenciaturas” and more than 15 attending PhD courses. In order to fulfil E.C.C.O.’s professional guidelines and the directives of the Joint Paper E.C.C.O./ENCoRE of access to the profession, ARP established 13 different specialisations: archaeologic materials; ethnographic materials; tiles, ceramics and glass; sculpture; photography; musical instruments; metals; furniture; paper, documents and books; stone; painting; mural painting and textiles.
The organisation in specialisations was fundamental for the conservator-restorer to acquire better capacities in a specific area and therefore to achieve better Cultural Heritage safeguarding.
In 1999, ARP participated with E.C.C.O., under proposal of its Italian congener Associazione Restauratori d'Italia (ARI), on the project Acteurs du Patrimoine Européen et Legislatión (E.C.C.O.-APEL). This project was concluded with the publication of a book and was based on gathering information concerning legislation and comparing the role of the conservator-restorer in several countries members of E.C.C.O.
The success of this participation contributed to the acceptance of ARP in E.C.C.O. in 2001. Since 2002, ARP delegates have participated actively, integrating E.C.C.O. Committee. Since 2000 ARP has been working in partnership with several groups coordinated by the Portuguese Institute of Conservation and Restoration (IPCR) – now the Institute of Museums and Conservation (IMC) – on the development of the basis of the Portuguese Conservator-Restorer Accreditation System.
The accreditation pretends to define, to regulate and to certify through normative instruments, the qualification of the professionals that work in the conservation field. An accredited conservator-restorer should be able to research, to teach, to coordinate, to prepare projects and to be responsible by the autonomous exercise of his/her specialisation.
ARP is member of the National Council of Culture (C.N.C.), being represented on the section of Museums and Conservation and Restoration. C.N.C. is the advisory body of the Ministry of Culture.
ARP has also participated as an active part in the Application Commission of Portugal to host the 16th Triennial Conference of ICOM-CC, in 2011. The application is now on the final phase of evaluation.
ARP promotes several activities that wish to contribute to the continuous professional development of the conservator-restorer, either for research or for conservationrestoration practice. On this direction, ARP has organised six training events: “To Conserve in Archaeology”, in collaboration with the Professional Association of Archaeologists (APA); “Leadership”; “How to Write a Scientific Article”; “Bibliographic Research”; “Laboratorial Methods of Analysis of Paintings” and “Cultural Marketing”.
ARP also publishes the peer-reviewed journal “Conservar Património” which is one of the few journals exclusively dedicated to conservation and restoration in the whole world and the only one in Portuguese. The last issue of the journal was a thematic issue about the report made by Luciano Freire (1864 – 1934) on the conservationrestoration treatments of more than 300 paintings from the National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA) collection. Although not very known, the relevance of this document is of the most importance for the history of conservation in Portugal.
Besides advertising the member’s professional contacts on its website, ARP published for the first time in 2007 an annual directory with contacts and useful information. This directory was freely distributed by hundreds of cultural, religious and state institutions, museums and universities. This initiative proved to be of great importance and it had an enormous receptivity. Although ARP activities rely on the voluntarism of a limited group of members, the association seeks to achieve a bigger representation for the defence and the promotion of the conservator-restorer profession in Portugal.


About the author

André Varela Remígio

André Remígio is member of the Direction Board of the Associação Profissional de Conservadores-Restauradores de Portugal since 2000. He is a conservator-restorer of sculpture and works as freelancer.

 

 

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