The conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property, including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preventive conservation, examination, documentation, research, treatment, and education. This field is closely allied with conservation science, curators and registrars.
In the broadest sense, cultural resource management (CRM) is the vocation and practice of managing heritage assets, and other cultural resources such as contemporary art. It incorporates Cultural Heritage Management which is concerned with traditional and historic culture. It also delves into the material culture of archaeology. Cultural resource management encompasses current culture, including progressive and innovative culture, such as urban culture, rather than simply preserving and presenting traditional forms of culture.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world. Now headquartered in Charenton-le-Pont, France, ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in Warsaw as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964 and offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.
The United States Department of State Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) is responsible for overseeing the construction, management, and operations of U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world.
The Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, also known by its former name, the Nara Research Institute for Cultural Properties, is one of two research institutes that comprise the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, an independent administrative institution created in 2001. Established in April 1952 as part of the National Commission for Protection of Cultural Properties,A the institute is located in the city of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, Japan, with branches elsewhere in Nara Prefecture. The institute is divided into departments for the excavation and restoration of the Asuka Palace, the Fujiwara Palace, and the Heijō Palace, historical remains, gardens, and other archaeological sites, and for the study of documents from Japan's early history. The Asuka Historical Museum is also managed by the institute.
The Korea Forest Service is a central administrative agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFR), responsible for protecting and nurturing forests, increasing forest resources, developing forest products, conducting research on forest management and improvement, and is located in Daejeon Government Complex. In the past, during the national forestation campaign from 1973 to 1986, it was temporarily under the Ministry of Home Affairs, but returned to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 1987. However, as the agency's work was focused solely on maintaining and managing successful national forestation policies, questions were raised about its necessity for a period of time. Currently, the agency has transformed its identity into one that strives to generate continuous income through forest resources.
A conservator-restorer is a professional responsible for the preservation of artistic and cultural artifacts, also known as cultural heritage. Conservators possess the expertise to preserve cultural heritage in a way that retains the integrity of the object, building or site, including its historical significance, context and aesthetic or visual aspects. This kind of preservation is done by analyzing and assessing the condition of cultural property, understanding processes and evidence of deterioration, planning collections care or site management strategies that prevent damage, carrying out conservation treatments, and conducting research. A conservator's job is to ensure that the objects in a museum's collection are kept in the best possible condition, as well as to serve the museum's mission to bring art before the public.
The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), located in Los Angeles, California, is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, and commenced operation in 1985. The GCI is a private international research institution dedicated to advancing conservation practice through the creation and delivery of knowledge. It "serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field" and "adheres to the principles that guide the work of the Getty Trust: service, philanthropy, teaching, and access." GCI has activities in both art conservation and architectural conservation.
The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide through training, information, research, cooperation and advocacy programmes. It aims to enhance the field of conservation-restoration and raise awareness to the importance and fragility of cultural heritage.
The Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) of the Naval History & Heritage Command (NHHC) is a unit of the United States Department of the Navy. It was formally founded in 1996 as a consequence of the emerging need to manage, study, conserve, and curate the U.S. Navy's submerged cultural resources.
Heritage science is the interdisciplinary domain of scientific study of cultural and natural heritage. Heritage science draws on diverse humanities, sciences and engineering disciplines. It focuses on enhancing the understanding, care and sustainable use of heritage so it can enrich people's lives, both today and in the future. Heritage science is an umbrella term encompassing all forms of scientific enquiry into human works and the combined works of nature and humans, of value to people.
The values embodied in cultural heritage are identified in order to assess significance, prioritize resources, and inform conservative-restorative decision-making. It is recognised that values may compete and change over time, and that heritage may have different meanings for different stakeholders.
The Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China is a conservation charter promulgated in 2000 by China ICOMOS with the approval of National Cultural Heritage Administration. It provides a methodological approach to the conservation of cultural heritage sites in China.
National Academy of Culture and Arts Management is a Ukrainian state institution of higher education. Its courses include postgraduate education.
Mounir Bouchenaki is an Algerian archaeologist and incumbent Director of the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage. He was Director-General of ICCROM from 2006 to 2011, UNESCO's Assistant Director General for Culture (2000-2006), Director of the World Heritage Centre (1998-2000), Director of UNESCO's Cultural Heritage Division (1990-2000). In January 2011, he was named honorary special adviser of UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and of ICCROM Director-General.
Collections management involves the development, storage, and preservation of cultural property, as well as objects of contemporary culture in museums, libraries, archives and private collections. The primary goal of collections management is to meet the needs of the individual collector or collecting institution's mission statement, while also ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of the cultural objects within the collector's care. Collections management, which consists primarily of the administrative responsibilities associated with collection development, is closely related to collections care, which is the physical preservation of cultural heritage. The professionals most influenced by collections management include collection managers, registrars, and archivists.
An Objects conservator is a professional, working in a museum setting or private practice, that specializes in the conservation of three-dimensional works. They undergo specialized education, training, and experience that allows them to formulate and implement preventive strategies and invasive treatment protocols to preserve cultural property for the future. Objects conservators typically specialize in one type of material or class of cultural property, including metals, archaeological artifacts, ethnographic artifacts, glass, and ceramic art. Objects conservation presents many challenges due to their three-dimensional form and composite nature.
The conservation and restoration of archaeological sites is the collaborative effort between archaeologists, conservators, and visitors to preserve an archaeological site, and if deemed appropriate, to restore it to its previous state. Considerations about aesthetic, historic, scientific, religious, symbolic, educational, economic, and ecological values all need to be assessed prior to deciding the methods of conservation or needs for restoration. The process of archaeology is essentially destructive, as excavation permanently changes the nature and context of the site and the associated information. Therefore, archaeologists and conservators have an ethical responsibility to care for and conserve the sites they put at risk.
Bartolomé Ruiz González is a Spanish archaeologist who has been involved in cultural management in Andalucia since the late 1970s. He currently runs the Archaeological Ensemble of the Antequera Dolmens and is the director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antequera.
The Direção-Geral do Património Cultural (DGPC), formerly the Instituto de Gestão do Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico (IGESPAR) and Instituto Português do Património Arquitetónico (IPPAR, is a general directorate of the Government of Portugal tasked with the conservation, preservation, and inventory of Portuguese architectural heritage. This includes buildings and sites of historical, architectural, scientific or artistic value. The institute keeps a registry of all the classified sites and issues legally binding opinions regarding any works on them.
