We are excited to inform you of a joint effort of E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE, on a topic relevant to the conservation-restoration practice.

On April 5th, 2025, ENCoRE and E.C.C.O are organising a joint symposium in Prague on the subject of Specialisation in Conservation-Restoration.

The one-day symposium aims to bring together educators and professionals to discuss the future of education and training in conservation-restoration. The needs of the sector and educational content are not always aligned, which may induce discrepancies between the skills conservator-restorers acquire in educational institutions and the professional environment in which they will work.  The main questions to be addressed will be:

1. Do conservator-restorers need a specialisation in their professional practice, and if so, to what extent?
2. How does this impact the content of educational programmes?

Our symposium aims to open the discussion between professionals and educational institutions on the needs of specialisations. For more detailed information please look at the call for papers.

Both fields, professionals represented by E.C.C.O and educators represented by ENCoRE, will be allotted four talks of twenty minutes followed by ten minutes of questions. In the afternoon we will have panel discussion with all speakers.

The talks given by E.C.C.O members should focus on the following questions:

What does the sector demand?

A.Very specialised professionals with a narrow field of application or generalist professionals with some knowledge of a wide range of materials, but with a general approach?

1. Are the needs for specialisation in a heritage institution (gallery, library, archive, museum, etc.) and in private practice different?
2. What proportion of these skills should be taught by conservation-restoration research? And by hands-on practice?
3. To what extent does the degree of specialised training influence the level of competences as set out in the E.C.C.O. Professional Guidelines and the E.C.C.O. Competences?

Are there specific areas where highly specialised professionals are needed?

1. In the countries where training programmes are organised by specialisations, is there evidence that conservators-restorers develop their profession in the same field in which they were trained? If not, how do professionals adapt a specific training to an additional specialisation or even a multi-material day-to-day activity?
2. Which specialisations are overrepresented?
3. Is there a lack of educational support in some specialisations?
4. Is there a danger of losing specialised knowledge?

We invite all our member associations to think about possible speakers. If you have someone in your board or among your members who could contribute to the topic please send us an abstract by February 15th. Speakers will be notified in the beginning of March. Unfortunately, we cannot pay for travel and accommodation.

Please keep in mind that we will have to choose four presentations from all abstracts, and therefore we invite only one abstract per association.

Your contributions are vital for the success of the symposium, and we are looking forward to your abstracts.

Wishing you a happy holiday season and all the very best in the New Year to come,

On behalf of the E.C.C.O. Committee,

Best regards,