Heritage Artisans Summer School at the Divnogorye Museum-Reserve

Heritage Artisans restoration school was held at the Divnogorye Natural, Architectural and Archaeological Museum-Reserve. The event was implemented as part of the “Museum 4.0” grant competition of the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation. The organizers of the event were: the Divnogorye Museum-Reserve and the Institute of Archaeology named after A.Kh. Khalikov of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences.

The restoration school aimed to train museum staff, archaeologists, and artist-restorers for independent work with archaeological finds in field conditions. It also focused on familiarizing participants with field conservation techniques, monitoring the condition of artifacts, and anti-destructive processing of archaeological collections.

The participation of specialists from different regions of the Russian Federation highlighted the urgency of preserving the material historical and cultural heritage and the shortage of qualified personnel in this field.

Specialists of the Institute of Archaeology TAS conducted a series of sessions combining theory and practice. Senior research fellow Polina Yuryevna Kaplan delivered lectures on the principles and fundamentals of museum restoration for ceramics. Research fellow Pavel Vladimirovich Fedan introduced participants to the basics of conservation and anti-destructive processing of archaeological objects made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Research fellow Valentina Aleksandrovna Valeeva shared the rules and principles for monitoring the condition of archaeological collections. During practical sessions, under the guidance of the instructors, participants carried out condition monitoring and rescue procedures on 140 archaeological artifacts (made of ceramics and metals) from the secondary fund of the Divnogorye Museum-Reserve.