Istituto per l'Arte e il Restauro

TRAINING OFFER

Assistant Restoration Specialist

As a formative institution accredited by Regione Toscana, our Institute offers triennial courses for "Assistant Conservator ". At the end of these courses, which are offered in four sectors, it will be issued two certifications: one issued by the Institute and one issued by the Regione Toscana.

The course sectors, as fixed by the DM 87/2009, are the following:

A1. Stone artefacts. Architectural decorated surfaces
A2. Painted Artworks on wooden and textile supports. Wooden carved artefacts. Wooden furniture. Assembled and/or painted plastic artefacts
A4. Materials and ceramic, glass and organic artworks. Materials and metal and other alloys artefacts
A5. Books and Archive artworks. Parchment and paper artefacts. Photography, cinema and digital materials.

According to the art. 2 of the DM 86 of 26th May 2009, the qualification of „Assistant Conservator ", obtained due to the art. 182 of Italian Cultural Heritage Codex, is equivalent to the sector profile of "Technician of restoration of cultural heritage".

The following is the text of the article no.2 of the DM 86 of 26th May 2009:

" The technician of restoration of moveable cultural heritage and architectural decorated surfaces, is a professional technician who co-operates with the artworks conservator. He works, with authonomous technical decisions, in order to prevent the process of artworks deterioration and to perform the various steps of a correct intervention of conservation. He works under the direct supervision of the main conservator. He is responsible, after the drafting of the conservator preliminary plan, of the laboratories, the tools and of all the materials and restoration instruments."

This professional profile is going to be enriched with other subject thanks to the proposals of various Italian Regional technical institutions, due to the indication of the art. No.29, comma 10 of Italian Cultural Heritage Codex.

The Assistant Conservator
Art. 182, 1-quinquies of Italian Cultural Heritage Codex

Waiting for the definition of the art. No.29, comma 10, with the same effects of comma 9-bis of the same art. No.29, the Qualification of „Assistant Conservator of Cultural Heritage " is obtained by means of:
a) A diploma of Universitary triennial degree in technologies of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, or a diploma in Restoration issued by of a Fine Art Academy after a triennial course;
b) A diploma of Restoration obtained in a statal or regional school of restoration following a triennial restoration course;
c) A professional certified experience obtained before the date of 1st May2004. In this case the candidate should have been done interventions of restoration due to the regulations provided by the art. No.29, comma 4, for a period of time of at least four years. The works should be certified by an official declaration of the responsible of the restoration firm, or by a personal declaration of the candidate due to the Italian Presidential Decree of the 28th December 2000, no. 445, and by the Superintendence certification of good conclusion of the conservation works;
d) The candidate who, after being admitted to the qualification exam as in the comma 1-bis cannot obtain the qualification of Artworks Conservator, could after the qualification exams be considered able to acquire the Qualification of "Assistant Conservator of Cultural Heritage" as in the DM 53/2009.

Notes by the Direction
The sub mentioned Ministerial decrees were officially contested by variour Regions and they are currently object of discussion.
The matter is not yet clearly defined.
On respect of the current regulations approved by Regione Toscana, our Institute offers for the coming academic year 2010-2011 a biennial programme (Qualified Technician) which will be followed by a specialization year (Expert Technician).

The professional courses currently activated by the Institute (2009-2010) are the following four:
Restoration of Frescoes (1st, 2nd and 3rd year)
Restoration of Paintings on canvas and wood panel (1st, 2nd and 3rd year)
Restoration of Ceramic, Stone Artefacts and Archaeological Finds (1st, 2nd and 3rd year)
Restoration of Archive and Book Artefacts . (2nd and 3rd year).

The date of beginning of the next courses is fixed on the11th October 2010.
The courses activities 2010-2011 will be suspended from 11st to 13rd November 2010 in order to allow students free participation to the events and the technical meetings programmed during the second edition of the International Florence Art and Restoration Fair.