Role purpose: The Object Conservator is responsible for performing conservation treatments on the museum’s object collections, ensuring their physical stability and safety while preserving their historical and artistic value. This role involves detailed documentation of conservation activities, preventive care, and collaboration with museum staff to support the long-term preservation, display, and accessibility of the collection.
Roles & responsibilities:
Conservation Treatments and Documentation:
- Perform a wide range of conservation treatments on historical object collections, including materials such as metal, ceramics, porcelain, glass, marble, wood, and more.
- Carry out conservation treatments on the gilded wooden frames in the collection, addressing both structural repairs and gilding restoration using traditional techniques.
- Conduct conservation treatments of the objects in consultation with the specialist Curator, ensuring their safety, stability, and preservation of historical and artistic context.
- Provide detailed records of all conservation work, including examinations, analyses, research, photographic documentation, and comprehensive reports.
Collection Care and Condition Assessments:
- Assess and conduct condition checks for individual objects and groups of objects within the collection.
- Provide expertise on the care, handling, and addressing of condition issues related to acquisitions, loans, exhibitions, transport, and storage.
- Conduct condition assessments and generate detailed reports for loan and exhibition requests.
Preventive Conservation:
- Monitor and manage the storage and display environments to prevent deterioration, implementing preventive conservation strategies tailored to the specific characteristics of the object collections.
- Advise on appropriate environmental conditions, including temperature, humidity, and light levels, to ensure optimal preservation.
Exhibition and Display Support:
- Provide guidance and consultation to the exhibition team, recommending specific display parameters, materials, and mounting requirements for the objects.
- Assist with the preparation and packing of the objects for exhibitions or storage.
Policy Development and Compliance:
- Ensure adherence to conservation policies and procedures, contributing to the review, interpretation, and development of preservation-related policies and strategies.
- Collaborate with other departments to update and implement plans for long-term preservation.
Collaboration and Communication:
- Work collaboratively with staff across the Lusail Museum and liaise with other departments to achieve institutional goals.
- Share conservation activities with colleagues, presenting research findings on various materials and their degradation processes
- Advocate for best conservation practices across Qatar Museums.
Laboratory Operations: Assist with the day-to-day operations of the Conservation Laboratory, ensuring an organized, clean, and safe workspace.
Education and Supervision: Occasionally supervise and mentor interns, volunteers, and junior staff members, providing guidance and training in conservation practices.
Transportation and Loan Support: Participate in the packing and transport of the object collections, accompanying the objects in transit when required to ensure their safety and proper handling.
- Minimum of 4 years of hands-on experience in the conservation of historical object collections.
- Extensive experience in the conservation of gilded wooden frames, involving both structural treatments and the use of traditional gilding techniques.
- Knowledge of Orientalist art and artists.
- Familiarity with materials and techniques specifically used in the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th century.
- Experience with scientific research and diagnostic techniques applied to different materials and techniques.
- Proficiency in relevant software for reporting, condition tracking, and data analysis.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to produce detailed conservation reports and effectively communicate findings to diverse audiences.
- Capacity to publish findings on various materials, techniques, and their degradation processes.
- Expertise in monitoring and controlling environmental factors to prevent deterioration, including light, temperature, and humidity.
- Familiarity with preventive conservation principles for storage, display, and transport of object collections
- Strong collaborative and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects and meet deadlines.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team to achieve institutional goals
- Demonstrated exceptional manual skills and ability to perform a broad range of complex conservation treatments on objects made from different materials.
- Strong knowledge of the history, manufacture, technology, and deterioration of historical object collections.Proficiency with advanced technical equipment for conservation documentation, such as microscopy, and analytical tools.
- Demonstrated understanding of chemistry and material science research related to the conservation of a wide range of materials and their interactions