City & Guilds of London Art School
/City & Guilds of London Art School
October 5, 2022
Over the last decade first and second year students on the BA (Hons) Conservation course at City & Guilds of London Art School have had the opportunity to examine and work on objects from Rochester Cathedral’s collection of sculptural fragments.
Some of the objects conserved by the Art's School Conservation students over the years are exhibited in in the crypt of the Cathedral.
At City & Guilds of London Art School the BA (Hons) Conservation Studies degree course focus is entirely on 3D cultural objects and positions Conservation at the meeting-point of science and art – a fascinating blend of state-of-the-art forensics, aesthetics and traditional craft skills.
The Art School’s Conservation Department has important links with organisations throughout the UK and Europe allowing our students to learn through live projects provided both on and off site. Collaborations such as the ones offered by Rochester Cathedral offer invaluable opportunities for students to work with conservators and other heritage professionals on ‘real life’ conservation problems such as those posed by the fragments held in the Lapidairum collection.
Recent and current projects include conservation and repair of the eighth-century ‘Celtic’-cross fragment, the heraldic shields of the Somer tomb, a medieval altar slab identified reused as a garden feature, and the exceptional fourteenth-century foliate panel thought to originate from Bishop John de Sheppey’s chantry chapel.
The Art School looks forward to continuing this long standing partnership that puts our student's conservation skills to the test.
The repository of stone comprises over 500 sculptural fragments from the eighth to the nineteenth-centuries.
