18-21 October 2006, Croatian Conservation Institute – Ludbreg Conservation Centre, Croatia

Direct work on a cultural property has an incontrovertibly crucial importance for the preservation and valuation of monument features, because of which objects, buildings or entire sites of the cultural history are recognised as monumental values.
However, this work, very complex and diverse as it is, has not been theoretically worked out to a sufficient extent, and for this reason, in practice, the conservation and restoration activity is carried out patchily and heterogeneously. There is often a shortage of solid reference points by which to demarcate professional issues and to establish the status of the activity, which can be seen in the process in which professional workers are trained, as well as when the criteria and standards for the performance of the activity of the conservator and restorer are being established.
The conference on the activity of conservation and restoration that is anticipated will endeavour to encompass scholarly and scientific, organisational, educational, legal and developmental activities in connection with hands-on work on a cultural property, the objective of which is the protection, renovation, arrangement and revitalisation of a heritage and its inclusion into the mainstream of culture and the economy.
Within the Organisation, Education and Development Section, there will be an endeavour to obtain answers that have been confirmed during practice, or that have been planned on the basis of theory. This will be of assistance to us in the improvement of the conservation and restoration activity, and will be the basis for development that is harmonised with European principles and tradition.

Section I
The Organisation of the Conservation and Restoration Activity

The protection of cultural assets or properties, particularly the execution of conservation works, is most often crisscrossed with diverse interests, which are very frequently in conflict with each other. The public interest requires the investigation, familiarisation and preservation of the totality of the monument features of a cultural property, while the interests of owners, users and investors often come to a full stop at the protection, appearance and use of the property. A similar ambivalence of interests can be found in institutions that work on cultural properties, whether they are non-profit-making institutions or profit-oriented companies. For this reason it is of very great importance to demarcate as correctly and competently as possible the authorities and responsibilities involved, and to determine the criteria for decision making and for the standardisation of procedures involved with cultural properties, with the objective of achieving progress in the conservation and restoration activity. Accordingly, the discussion in this section will deal with institutional, functional and professional definitions in the system of activities.
The first group of issues includes the status and sphere of competence of:

• public establishments at a national, regional and local level;
• institutions, companies and individuals authorised to work on the protected heritage;
• professional and civil organisations and educational initiatives.

Discussion is expected on the conditions that an entity or a company must meet for the performance of this activity, the criteria to be considered when choosing a contractor, the way control is carried out, review of the works that have been done, the obligations of the profession and the owners or users for the maintenance of a cultural property.
The second group of issues covers professional definitions in the system of the activity, such as for example:

• the establishment of the terminology;
• standardisation of the activity, for example, research aimed at diagnosis of the condition of a cultural property as groundwork for the planning of conservation works;
• the rules for planning;
• standardisation of ancillary documentation and its accessibility;
• the employment of traditional materials and technologies.

Section II
Training and Further Development in the Conservation and Restoration Activity

Between a craft and a science, between a skill and theoretical knowledge, utilising the practices of various professions, for example, those of architect, art historian and archaeologists to restorer, painter, sculptor and chemist, this activity requires a great many different kinds and degrees of education for those engaged in it, the people who are employed on the conservation and restoration programmes. Faced with tasks of an interdisciplinary nature and often complex organisational demands, many participants in the work only become truly professionalized as conservators or restorers when they are on the job, in line with their aptitudes and capacities.
A primary stimulation of artistic expression on the one hand, or a primary orientation to scientifically based restoration processes on the other tends to characterise the diverse approaches in the education and training of restorers. This opens up the issue of whether to found courses for the conservation and restoration activity within the framework of the existing faculties or art academies or whether to establish special interdisciplinary and inter-faculty courses for the protection of the cultural heritage. The decisions are being actualised within the process of adjustment to the Bologna Declaration.
Training for traditional crafts, various educational curricula and specialised courses, as well as the relationship between acquired theoretical knowledge and practical work, merit particular discussion within the framework of this section.
For this reason the outline of the debate in this section can be indicated in the following issues:

• the definition of professional profiles and the establishment of the equivalence of professional qualifications or degrees in the conservation and restoration activity;
• the connection of conservation and restoration curricula with the contents of the curricula of some of the professions – a special, separate course, or specialisation for the restoration and conservation activity;
• combined practical and theoretical training – the linking of educational establishments with professional and scientific institutions;
• ongoing training on the job: the building site, the school, specialised workshops, inter-institution exchange, scientific and professional conferences;
• bringing conservation and restoration matters into educational curricula about the cultural heritage;
• training and acquisition of skills in the employment of the traditional crafts.

Section III
The Development and Role of the Conservation and Restoration Activity in Cultural and Economic Development

The fundamental objective of the conference can be summed up in recommendations for the advancement and development of the conservation and restoration activity.
Here, we look on advances primarily as approaches that can improve the effectiveness of the profession, and development as an enlargement of the conservation and restoration activity from the point of view of a more vigorous and diversified involvement in the development programmes of other cultural and economic activities.
The conservation and restoration activity is a key factor in the process of preserving the protected cultural heritage. Although such a claim can hardly be gainsaid, in order to define the role of the activity in cultural and economic development, it is vital to consider certain important issues, such as:

• the position of the conservation and restoration activity in a cultural and economic system;
• the manner of financing the conservation and restoration activity from the resources of the national Budget and
• the conservation and restoration activities and the market.

The role of the conservation and restoration activity in economic development is indirectly determined by the manner of managing the protected cultural heritage, and in the debate on this topic, it is necessary to touch on these issues as well:

• investment in the preservation of the cultural heritage;
• wise use of the cultural heritage and
• the cultural heritage as comparative advantage in economic development.

These topics are in very broad outlines the framework for a debate on the role of the conservation and restoration activity in the development of a democratic society and a contemporary economy.