The Launch of The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles and the First Textile Conservation Lab in Thailand
In 2012, The Queen of Thailand’s textile museum and conservation lab opened in Bangkok, the culmination of a five-year conservation project for Julia. This multi-year effort included the preparation of over one hundred textiles for the inaugural exhibitions; the training of a team of museum conservators; the implementation of sustainable and state-of-the-art solutions for long term storage and display of textiles; and conservation outreach and training in Thailand.
Textile Conservation Outreach in Thailand and South East Asia
Other Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) projects included the first training workshop in textile conservation methodologies. The Queen’s Museum partnered with Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts (SEAMEO SPAFA). Facilitated by Julia Brennan, the program brought together museum professionals who care for national and regional textile collections, from eleven ASEAN nations, for practicum and instruction, and to start building a regional conservation network.
ICOM CC 2011 Lisbon
ICOM CC 2011 Lisbon brought together colleagues from all over the planet to discuss, learn and explore not only fabulous Portugal, but the theme of “Cultural Heritage vs Cultural Identity – The Role of Conservation. Tang, fellow conservator from Thailand, and I presented a talk about the forthcoming Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles.
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- Getty Grantees Utsha Gurung (Bhutan), Namita Jaspal (India), Parichat “Tang” (Thailand) and Hakim (Algeria) in front of Lisbon’s Golden Gate Bridge.
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- Julia with 3 conservators from the Conservation Centre of The Grand Egyptian Museum.
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- The Board of ICOM CC assembles
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- Tang and Julia introduce the Queen Sirikit Museum of Thailand to the Textiles Session
ICOM CC Triennial Meeting, Delhi, India, 2008
Over 74 countries participated in this global conservation conference. Sangita Gurung, my colleague from the Textile Museum in Thimphu, co-presented the paper on anoxic storage systems. We made wonderful friends with other bursaries from Croatia, Lithuania, Romania, Chile, Viet Nam, Philippines, Indonesia, Guatemala, Nigeria and Egypt.
Advanced Textile Conservation Training in Bhutan, 2008
Sponsored by the Friends of Bhutan’s Culture and the Getty Foundation, this 3 month project focused on the advanced training of museum staff and first ever training of monks. Working in rural monasteries, treatments included 16th -19th century religious textiles and thankgas and the publication of the English-Dzongka A Handbook – How to Take Care of Sacred Obects in the Monasteries.
Textile Conservation Workshop in Algeria, 2006
Sponsored by the U.S. Ambassador’s Grant for Cultural Preservation, National Bardo Museum, Algiers, Algeria. Working in a 16th century Moorish villa museum, training 10 professionals, this workshop focused on the treatment and stabilization of 15 Ottoman style textiles and the upgrade of strorage and exhibition conditions.
Textile Conservation Project in Madagascar, 2005
Sponsored by the U.S. Ambassador’s Grant for Cultural Preservation and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Here are scenes from the three-week textiles conservation workshop, training 12 participants from 4 different museums in Madagascar. Focusing on an important 19th century collection of traditional Malagasy shawls or “lambas,” the training incorporated accessioning, condition reporting, color testing, cleaning, stabilization and treatments, preparing a state of the art climate controlled storage room and preparing thirty textiles for an exhibition.
