1. Faculty of Arts
  2. Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation
Faculty of Arts

Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation


Faculty of Arts

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COVID-19: Staff and students from the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation are self-isolating and working online from home. We believe that the health and wellbeing of our community is of paramount importance so our theoretical teaching has transitioned to online learning and practical classes on campus have resumed with restricted access. We are continuing to support our students, offer the best possible experiences and engage with students, communities and the profession in new ways. University update regarding coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation develops Australia's capacity to conserve our continuing cultural record. Through teaching and learning, research and engagement in cultural materials conservation, we enable individuals and communities to explore their past, create identity and community in the present, and access their heritage into the future.

As the only centre of its kind in Australia, we combine the theory and practice of cultural materials conservation and deliver conservation education, research and community commercial programs of international reach and relevance. Our approach is led by academics and industry practitioners and supported by national and international partners. Grimwade Centre students have access to unique interdisciplinary expertise across the Arts and Science faculties and The University of Melbourne’s vast cultural collections on campus.

The Grimwade Centre is housed in state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities on Swanston Street thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Cripps Foundation. The Grimwade Centre is part of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies in the Faculty of Arts.

The Grimwade Centre and its staff support the adoption of the Uluru Statement from the Heart (270kb pdf), and the call for the Australian government to establish a Makarrata Commission and a Voice to Parliament.

In accordance with the Australian Institute for Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) Code of Ethics (175kb pdf), Grimwade Centre staff are governed by:

  • an informed respect for cultural property, its unique character and significance and the people or person who created it, and
  • an unswerving respect for the physical, historic, aesthetic and cultural integrity of the object

Loss of Australian Indigenous knowledge is a national preventable tragedy and sovereignty is key to the preservation of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage.

"This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or 'mother nature', and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.

How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood."

Uluru Statement from the Heart

  • Staff

  • Contact

  • Health and safety

  • Our programs

    Develop your expertise through our Masters in Cultural
    Materials Conservation, higher degree and other programs

  • Information for new and prospective students

    For new and prospective students, welcome to Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation.

  • Current graduate students and resources

    Information for current students including our Conservation student resources on CANVAS, our intensive teaching subject timetable, modes of delivery and useful links.

  • Chemistry Bridging Course

    This one-week intensive bridging course is recommended for students who lack a background in chemistry or who wish to revise its basic concepts and practice. The course has been specifically developed to teach the fundamentals of chemistry to those entering the Master of Arts in Cultural Material Conservation.

  • Research environment

    The Grimwade Centre housed in state-of-the-art research facilities has strong and ongoing collaborative partnership across campus, and national and international partners.

  • Research strengths

    The Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation delivers innovative solutions to industry and community embedded problems which impact the sustainability of cultural material. Our research delivers local solutions of global significance.

  • Research showcase

    A sample of the Grimwade Centre’s research

A critical strength of the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation programs is our engagement with community and with commercial conservation services. Our outcome-based community engagement projects enable our staff and students to develop culturally relevant skills whilst making a significant practical contribution to the cultural preservation of specific communities around Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

  • Partners and networks

    The Grimwade Centre has many collaborative partners and networks both national and international.

  • Indigenous communities and programs

    The Grimwade Centre has established Indigenous-based partnerships to examine applied knowledge relating to the production and preservation of cultural material in indigenous communities in Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

  • Governance

    With support from the Grimwade Centre’s Advisory Board, the centre is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science and the Ian Potter Museum of Art.

  • Student Conservators at the University of Melbourne (SC@M)

    SC@M is a student-run committee that acts as a point of contact between students and staff involved in the University of Melbourne's Masters of Cultural Material Conservation.

  • Asia-Pacific Tropical Climate Conservation Art Research Network (APTCCARN)

    The Asia Pacific Tropical Climate Conservation Art Research Network is a collaborative effort to explore the history and preservation of twentieth-century cultural material in Asia and the Pacific.

  • War Heritage Roadshow 2017-18

  • The University of Melbourne Library Middle Eastern Manuscripts Collection

  • About us

    Bringing together leading University of Melbourne research to enable improved conservation outcomes

    Find out more
  • Services

    Conservation treatment and advice, collection care, scientific analysis and training

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  • People

    Meet our team of professional conservators

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  • Our portfolio

    Examples of successful conservation treatments at Grimwade Conservation Services.

    Find out more

Contact us

Have a question about conservation? Get in touch.

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