Save the Textile Conservation Centre

From Tehmina Goskar at Past Thinking

Conservation has been high in my thoughts recently. Largely through my current work with ICOMOS-UK (International Council on Monuments and Sites UK) I have been exposed to the vicissitudes that affect the preservation and interpretation of our heritage, whether they are the result of inappropriate development, lack of funds or lack of collective and political will to stand up for cultural heritage as a fundamental part of modern society. Continue Reading »

The online petition set up by Mandy-Jane Patterson to petition the PM to keep the Textile Conservation Centre open has received its 2800th signature. This is up from the just over 2100 announced by the Southampton Echo in December. 

From the Guardian Unlimited Arts by Maev Kennedy

Threat of closure hangs over a world famous centre for historic textiles, where recent projects included conserving the topsail of Nelson’s HMS Victory, a unique set of Victorian painted canvas stage scenery - and Freddie Mercury’s imitation leather trousers. Continue Reading »

From the Daily Echo by Andrew Napier

A CAMPAIGN to save a threatened conservation centre in Winchester is attracting national support.

A petition on the Prime Minister’s website against the closure of the Textile Conservation Centre has garnered 2,171 names. Continue Reading »

From the Wessex Scene Online

The Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) based at Winchester School of Art (WSA) is to close its doors in 2009, the University of Southampton has recently announced.

The decision will mean the loss of all jobs and courses across the centre, and has prompted one student to petition to the government to save it. Continue Reading »

From the Costume Society

We ask for letters to be sent objecting to this closure to: Professor Nick Foskett Dean of Law, Arts and Social Sciences, with copies to Professor Bill Wakeham, Vice-Chancellor, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ. The more post they get the better.. Continue Reading »

From the Daily Echo by Andrew Napier

ONLY a seven-figure cash boost will save the threatened Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) in Winchester, the Daily Echo has learned.

Earlier this month we revealed that the world-renowned centre at Winchester School of Art would close in 2009 because it costs too much to run. Continue Reading »

From the Southampton University Bulletin

Following a detailed review of the viability of the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC), the University’s Council proposes, with profound regret, that the Centre, which has been part of the University since June 1999, will close in late 2009. Continue Reading »

From the Just-Style apparel and textile blog

What do Henry VIII’s football boots, the hood of the Elephant Man and Freddie Mercury’s outlandish concert costumes all have in common?

They’re among the conservation projects carried out by the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC), the world’s leading school for textile conservation – which is threatened with closure in 2009 unless an endowment of GBP5m can be found. Continue Reading »

From the Times Online by Simon Tait

Conservators around the world have been shocked by the University of Southampton’s decision to “condemn to oblivion”, in the words of the UK Institute of Conservation (Icon), the world’s leading school for textile conservation.

The Textile Conservation Centre (TCC), which has trained half the world’s select group of 800 textile conservators, including the winner of this year’s £15,000 national Conservation Award, is to close because it no longer fits the university’s research and funding criteria.

The president of the International Institute of Conservation, Jerry Podany, of the Getty Museum in California, wrote to the Vice-Chancellor of Southampton, Professor Bill Wakeham, saying the decision is “widely perceived as no less than a betrayal of trust”.

“We see the university’s decision as damaging to the world’s textile heritage, the international conservation community, and most sadly a poor repayment for the loyalty, high standards and dedication of its highly motivated staff,” he wrote.

Read the rest of the article here