Art Conservation Department Hosts Study Abroad in South America

The Art Conservation department sponsored its first Study Abroad trip to Chile and Peru during the 2008 Winter Session, where undergraduate students, under the supervision of Dr. Vicki Cassman, gained museum experience and knowledge, as well as technical skills in the materials and techniques of Indigenous South American art.

The University of Delaware students spent the first twenty days in Arica, Chile where they studied and gained experience at the Museo Universidad de Tarapacá Arica. Each student worked on a specific project for the museum, including the treatment of Inka and pre-Inka textiles and fiber analysis. Conservation treatment of the pre-Columbian textiles consisted of helping the textile conservator prepare objects to be sent on loan for an exhibition by surface cleaning, wet cleaning, and supporting the textiles. Students involved in fiber analysis examined the fibers on spindles found archaeologically in the Azapa valley, the region surrounding the city of Arica. Students gained practical museum experience by writing mission and vision statements, and conducting a visitor survey for the Museo Universidad de Tarapacá Arica.

While at the museum, the students learned the materials and techniques of Native South American arts. Students worked with ceramics, making reconstructions of Inka anthropomorphic pinch pots and Tiwanaku keros, and textiles, making reconstructions of faldellins (pubic covers used by the first inhabitants), mat twining, and fishing nets. The reconstructions were made using the same materials, which the students collected in the Azapa valley, and techniques as used by ancient South Americans.

While in Arica, the students stayed with Chilean host families to gain a better understanding and appreciation for the culture whose heritage they were studying.

The last 10 days of the trip were spent in Peru, where the students applied the knowledge gained at the museum to the collections and archaeological sites in Arequipa, Cusco, and Machu Picchu. The visual analysis of objects in Peru allowed the students to connect conceptual ideas learned through experience at the museum in Chile.

By: Gwenanne Edwards