October 2009
Building Conservation course students will be eligible from the Summer of 2010 for all expenses paid internships in Transylvania, Romania with the Mihai Eminescu Trust,to participate in their various ongoing programmes of conservation,regeneration and sustainability there. Contact Andrew Shepherd for more details.

Castle Banffy, Bontida, Transylvania
July 2009

Building Conservation course students John Gajewski,Rosie Shaw,and Jade Young practicing newfound stonemasonry skills at the Built Heritage Conservation Training workshop at Castle Banffy,Bontida, Transylvania,where they participated together with students and craftsmen from Romania,Hungary,England and Slovakia.

Other Past News
Following a study tour in 2006 to Brussels and Antwerp, and the ‘Belgian Day at the AA’ in 2008, Andrew Shepherd attended the inauguration of a UNESCO Chair in Preventative Conservation and Maintenance at the Raymond Lemaire International Conservation Training Centre at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Adequate maintenance prevents the need for future invasive conservation works! We were also pleased to host the inaugural seminar of an EU-funded project on ‘Criteria for Assessment of Heritage at Risk’ as a part of the ‘Heritage without Borders’ programme with participants from seven countries in Southeast Europe.

At the invitation of the Littoral Arts Trust, the course has become engaged with the proposed conservation of Kurt Schwitters’ Mertz Barn at Elterwater in the Lake District, offering both advice and assistance to an exhibition at the Royal College of Art. It is hoped that a working party at the Barn can be arranged in the near future.