Pedagogical Strategies to “Shorten Distances”: An Online Course on Stain Removal for Textiles

Event review Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents Pedagogical Strategies to “Shorten Distances”: An Online Course on Stain Removal for Textiles Ir a versión en español DOI: 10.30763/Intervencion.283.v1n27.62.2023 • YEAR 14, NO. 27: 282-293 Submitted: 20.12.2021 • Accepted: 05.04.2023 • Published: 30.09.2023 Sol Barcalde Carolina Morales Museo Nacional del Cabildo de Buenos Aires Museo de Arte Popular Americano (mapa), y la Revolución de Mayo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Chile Argentina orcid: orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4441-5174 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2068-2152 Translation by Fernanda Andablo ABSTRACT In the field of South American textile conservation, the lack of courses in Spanish and the difficulty of connecting with other professionals in the international community are challenges faced in the attempt to update knowledge within the area. With this premise, the Comité Nacional de Conservación Textil (cnct, National Textile Conservation Committee)—an institution that brings together professionals related to the conservation and investigation of the textile heritage of Chile and other countries of the Southern Cone—developed the initiative to organize a course on textile stain removal techniques with innovative application methods. This review presents the experience of the participants on such a course, titled Disolver o remover para resolver. Curso virtual de conservación sobre la limpieza localizada en textiles (Dissolve or Remove to Resolve. Virtual Conservation Course on Localized Cleaning on Textiles). KEYWORDS textile conservation, stain reduction, gels, Spanish training course, pedagogical tools Pedagogical Strategies to “Shorten Distances”… CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 282 Event review Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents INTRODUCTION rom September 7 to 16, 2021, Laura Mina1 and Laura García Vedrenne,2 textile conservators, both residing in the United States, offered a virtual theoretical-practical course focused on localized cleaning on textiles with gels and pads, which was shared by the Comité Nacional de Conservación Textil (cnct, National Textile Conservation Committee). Although at the beginning it was intended to be given in person, the instability of the Chilean sociopolitical context, which started in 2019, and later, the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020, led the organization to a completely virtual format. F PREVIOUS CONSIDERATIONS The field of textile conservation in Latin America faces problems and difficulties that often complicate—or even hold back—the training of professionals in the region. Language is one barrier that we as Latin Americans come up against, considering that a large amount of the specialized bibliography on textile conservation is written in English. Furthermore, the seminars and courses given by international organizations require fluency and full comprehension of the language. Therefore, interest in creating this course arose; it was conceived in 2019 in London, at an academic meeting event between Francisca Campos (conservator partner of the cnct) and Laura García Vedrenne. Within this context, the exchange of ideas and the common concern about the difficulty of accessing courses in Spanish in the field of textile conservation in Latin America became important. Precisely, it has to be considered that most of the bibliography on the subject is published in English, which sometimes results in the detriment of textile collections: pieces that do not receive the specialized treatments they require due to the lack of knowledge. This concern, raised by Francisca Campos, was acknowledged by Laura García Vedrenne, who, in an attempt to plan a course, contacted with specialist conservators. This is how one of them, Laura Mina, an American conservator, who has published some of the few articles on the topic of cleaning with gels (i. e. Mina, 2020), joined the project. Head of the Textile Conservation Laboratory at the Winterthur Museum and full-time faculty professor in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (wudpac). 2 Andrew W. Mellon fellow in Textile Conservation in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 1 Pedagogical Strategies to “Shorten Distances”… CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 283 Event review Intervención Directed by García Vedrenne and Mina, the course was conceived as an instance of training-specialization in theory and with practical experimentation, accessible to the Spanish-speaking community of the Southern Cone. In this sense, the collaboration of Laura García Vedrenne was fundamental, both in the translation from English to Spanish of the contents prepared by Laura Mina— who, since she does not speak our language, could not teach the course by herself—and in the dictation of classes and simultaneous translation during each meeting. ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents ORGANIZATION To guarantee that all participants experimented on the same basis, the enrollment included a kit of materials (Figure 1), consisting of stained cloths on which to carry out the experimentation and materials for applying cleaning solutions and gels. The search and acquisition of these in each locality also required effort, since it was essential to obtain experiences based on regional availability. FIGURE 1. Set of stained fabrics (Photograph: Francisca Campos, 2021; courtesy of the author). Pedagogical Strategies to “Shorten Distances”… CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 284 Event review Intervención The instructors prepared and sent each participant a set of stained fabrics (Figure 1), with 16 samples in total, organized by type of stain: dirty water, tea or coffee, rust, and adhesive; also, it included four textile types: cotton, nylon, wool, and a mixture of silk and rayon. In addition, an organizing commission—consisting on members of the cnct: Catalina Rivera and Francisca Campos in Chile, and Patricia Lissa and Ivana Rigacci in Argentina—was in charge of purchasing, preparing, and distributing the materials (Figure 2), as well as receiving and sending the sets of stained fabrics to the attendees from those two countries, plus Brazil. ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents FIGURE 2. Kit of materials (Photograph: Francisca Campos, 2021; courtesy of the author). Two months before the beginning of the course, the instructors sent through Google Drive the link to a shared-access folder with key information so that the participants could anticipate the theoretical contents: syllabus, initial bibliography, and basic concepts. PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGIES The program, the content, and the dictation of the course were developed based on two fundamental premises: to use Spanish language, and to use the Zoom platform for the remote sessions. The resources were optim (...truncated)