The Museum Art Conservation Space on the Hatfield campus in the Old Arts Building, in room 1–13, is a new modern space dedicated to the conservation of museum collections. This is a unique specialised resource found at no other university in South Africa and provides the University of Pretoria with the ability to preserve, conserve, care for, and protect its collections of nearly 10,000 artworks and over 100,000 items. This space is ergonomically designed for providing a range of conservation services, from painting conservation, and the conservation of works on paper, prints, and drawings, to archaeological, ceramic, and organic conservation. This learning, research, and working space is also used for curatorial research activities, serves other institutions and individuals as and when needed, and is intended for public viewing. National and international researchers can access, work on, and examine physical collections in a safe and secure environment. It is a living museum laboratory where the preservation and conservation of the diverse types of materials in the museum collections take place. The conservation space was founded in 2009 out of a need to conserve the Mapungubwe archaeological collection, and from the onset, the conservation space primarily serves the immediate needs of the diverse natural, cultural, art, historical and heritage collections of the University of Pretoria as a critical resource to the research functions of the museum collections.

Contact:

Sandra Markgraaf (Art Conservator)

Room 1-13, Old Arts Building, Main Campus

Tel: +27 (0)12 420 2503

Email: [email protected]