Siân Jones: The Object of Conservation and Beyond

How are heritage objects made and what kind of conservation work does this involve?

In this lecture, Siân Jones (Professor of Heritage at the University of Stirling) will discuss some of the conclusions arising from her recent book (co-authored with Tom Yarrow).

Based on a multi-sited ethnographic study of conservation practice in a national heritage organisation, The Object of Conservation (2022) examines how historic buildings, monuments and artefacts are cared for as valued embodiments of the past.

Conservation practice involves various kinds of intervention to keep heritage objects in some sense as they are, in the face of various challenges, changes and threats. Siân will foreground how conservation objects are produced through the everyday practices of heritage professionals, which make the material traces of the past available as objects of attention, concern, intervention and care.

She will finish by briefly introducing the DECOPE project, which examines how these everyday practices are disrupted, adapted and transformed by war and the role of international networks, resources and initiatives in heritage protection and ‘rescue’.

This event is co-hosted by the Association for Critical Heritage Studies, UK Chapter and the Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage, University of Leeds.

Book your place

This will be held online on Zoom.

Book your free place via TicketSource.

Image

Cadzow Castle, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Photo by Siân Jones.