Study at the Hamilton Kerr Institute

Internship: Content

Interns in painting conservation are encouraged to use all the facilities offered by the Institute and would be expected to take problems to the laboratory and assist the Research Scientist in their resolution. An intern working with the Research Scientist would be expected to spend time in the studio examining paintings with the conservator.

Interns would be required to visit exhibitions and collections with members of staff and attend lectures by specialists during the course of the year. Where time and circumstances permit, the intern would spend a short period of secondment to the Institute’s London Studio (Ebury Street). As the conservators at Ebury Street work in the commercial world, the placement is to gain experience of estimating, effective time management, in addition to experience of structural techniques. Interns would also be invited to apply for exchanges with other European conservation training programmes for up to three months under the Erasmus/Socrates scheme.

1.  Practical Conservation

First year

• Initial period of assessment of ability and current experience.
• Treatment of a range of small scale projects to absorb techniques employed by the Institute. Interns are encouraged to suggest approaches based on their own experience. The type of project undertaken would be based on the intern's own experience, and would aim to fill gaps in her/his education. Emphasis is placed on the structural treatment of painting on canvas and panel.
• Presentation of a seminar on the intern's previous experience.
• Conservation projects supervised by staff members.
• Tuition as required in analytical techniques.
• Interns may follow the course of theoretical instruction given to students.
• Monitoring of the Fitzwilliam Museum collection.
• In-situ conservation work in country house collections.
• Planning of research project.
• Presentation of work.

Second year

• Continuation of conservation projects and related research.
• Research project.
• Placement at the Hamilton Kerr Institute's London Studio.

2.  Conservation Science

Conservation Science Internships follow the same model as Practical Conservation Internships and are open to recently trained conservators with an interest in, and aptitude for, science. The expectation is that interns will be able to coordinate scientific research in the laboratory with the examination and/or treatment of paintings in the studio.

The Institute’s laboratory is equipped with polarised light and transmitted light microscopes for the identification of pigments and examination of cross sections. The Institute also has access to scanning electron microscopes with elemental analysis facilities in Cambridge.

The emphasis of past work has been on inorganic materials and artists’ techniques. Other analytical methods can be arranged as required and other subjects of study are welcomed.

A significant corpus of analytical results has been accumulated since the Institute opened in 1978 and this presents opportunities for scientific research beyond particular paintings that may be undergoing examination or treatment the studio.

The Institute has also become home to a number of important conservation-related archives that include artists’ materials, historic documentation, historic photographs and annotated images. These too present opportunities for scientific research.

Research is encouraged on primary sources – paintings, samples, archives, etc. – and also on the management of technical data with a specific interest in image processing and exploitation of the web as a means of providing access to the resources at the Institute.