The Italian Job: Conservation of Art and Heritage

What is art conservation and what do conservators actually do?

Juliet Thomas travelled to Italy for a three-week intensive study tour with world-renowned conservator Carolina Izzo to gain an understanding of the care, restoration and value of historic objects and places.

Touring prestigious conservation schools, museums, crawling around tombs at Pompeii and painstakingly dusting altars, this talk covers some of the key lessons Juliet uncovered while working with a tradition that's perfected the art and science of conservation over millennia.

Juliet is a former employee of Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science & Heritage and a near-graduate of Victoria University’s Post-Graduate Diploma of Museum & Heritage Studies - unless her head of School convinces her to pursue a Master's Degree.

The tour contributed to the diploma and her ambition to work with historic objects, people and sharing the inherent wonders between the two. Juliet's travel to Italy was significantly aided by a grant from the Jaycee Travelling Fellowship.